Model of Organizational Buying Behavior

These are environmental, organizational, buying center, and individual. This is quite a comprehensive model. It considers four sets of variables which affect the buying-decision making process. The environmental variables include (a) physical, (b)technological, (c) economic, (d) political, (e) legal, (f) labor unions, (g) cultural, (h) customer demands, (i) competition, and (j) supplier information. For example, in a recessionary economic condition, industrial firms minimize the quantity of items purchased. The environmental factors influence the buying decisions of individual organizations.

The organizational variables include (a) objectives, (b) goals, (c) organization structure, (d) purchasing policies and procedures, (e) degree of centralization in purchasing, and (f) evaluation and reward system. These variables particularly influence the composition and functioning of the buying centre, and also, the degree of centralization or decentralization in the purchasing function in the buying organization.

The functioning of buying centre is influenced by the organizational variables, the environmental variables, and the individual’s variables. The output of the group decision-making process of the buying centre includes solutions to the buying problems of the organization and also the satisfaction of personal goals of individual members of the buying centre.

The strengths of the model, developed in 1972, are that it is comprehensive, generally applicable, analitytical, and that it identifies many key variables which could be considered while developing marketing strategies by industrial marketers. However, the model is weak in explaining the specific influence of the key variables.