The authors report findings bearing on the reliability of measures used in industrial marketing research surveys to identify the structure of buying groups. Results obtained in a pilot study of the purchase of lithographic plates by small printing firms reveal a lack of consensus about purchase influence between pairs of informants from the same organizations. Further, the ratings appear to differentiate among roles but not stages in the decision process.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BagozziRichard P. (1978), “Exchange and Decision Processes in the Buying Center,” in Organizational Buying Behavior, BonomaThomas V., and ZaltmanGerald, eds. Chicago: American Marketing Association,100–25.
2.
BellozziJoseph A., and WalterC. K. (1980), “Purchasing Agents’ Influence in the Buying Process,”Industrial Marketing Management, 9(April), 137–41.
3.
BishopYvonne M. M., FienbergStephen E., and HollandPaul W. (1975), Discrete Multivariate Analysis.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
4.
BonomaThomas V., and ZaltmanGerald, and JohnstonWesley J. (1977), “Industrial Buying Behavior,” Report No. 77-117, Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, MA.
5.
BrandGordon T. (1972), The Industrial Buying Decision.New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
6.
BucknerHugh (1967), How British Industry Buys.London: Hutchinson.
7.
CalderBobby J. (1977), “Structural Role Analysis of Organizational Buying: A Preliminary Investigation,” in Consumer and Industrial Buying Behavior, WoodsideArch G., ShethJagdish N., and BennettPeter D., eds. New York: North-Holland,193–9.
8.
CampbellDonald T., and FiskeDonald W. (1959), “Convergent and Discriminant Validation by the Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix,”Psychological Bulletin, 52(March), 81–105.
9.
CannellCharles F., and OksenbergLois, and ConverseJean M. (1977), “Striving for Response Accuracy: Experiments in New Interviewing Techniques,”Journal of Marketing Research, 14(August), 306–15.
10.
ChoffrayJean-Marie (1977), “A Methodology for Investigating the Nature of the Industrial Adoption Process and the Differences in Perceptions and Evaluation Criteria Among Decision Participants,” Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
11.
ChoffrayJean-Marie, and LilienGary (1980), “Industrial Market Segmentation by the Structure of the Buying Process,”Industrial Marketing Management, 9(October), 331–42.
12.
CohenJacob (1960), “A Coefficient of Agreement for Nominal Scales,”Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20(Spring), 37–46.
13.
CooleyJames R., JacksonDonald W.Jr., and OstromLonnie L. (1977), “Analyzing the Relative Power of Participants in Industrial Buying Decisions,”Proceedings, 1977 Educators’ Conference. Chicago: American Marketing Association, Series No. 41, 243–6.
14.
CooleyJames R., JacksonDonald W.Jr., and OstromLonnie L. (1978), “Relative Power in Industrial Buying Decisions,”Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management (Spring), 18–20.
15.
CronbachLee J. (1951), “Coefficient Alpha and the Internal Structure of Tests,”Psychometrika, 16(September), 297–334.
16.
CyertRichard M., SimonHerbert A., and TrowDonald B. (1956), “Observation of a Business Decision,”Journal of Business, 29(October), 237–48.
17.
DavisHarry L. (1971), “Measurement of Husband-Wife Influence in Consumer Purchase Decisions,”Journal of Marketing Research, 8(August), 305–12.
18.
DavisHarry L., DouglasSusan P., and SilkAlvin J. (1981), “Measure Unreliability: A Hidden Threat to Cross-National Consumer Research?”Journal of Marketing, 45(Spring), 98–109.
19.
DavisJames A. (1971), Elementary Survey Analysis.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
20.
FeldtLeonard S. (1965), “The Approximate Sampling Distribution of Kuder-Richardson Reliability Coefficient Twenty,”Psychometrika, 30(September), 357–70.
21.
FleissJoseph L. (1975), “Measuring Agreement Between Two Judges on the Presence or Absence of a Trait,”Biometrics, 31(September), 651–9.
22.
GoodmanLeo A., and KruskalWilliam H. (1954), “Measures of Association for Cross Classifications,”Journal of the American Statistical Association, 49(December), 732–64.
23.
GrashofJohn F., and ThomasGloria P. (1976), “Industrial Buying Center Responsibilities: Self Versus Other Member Evaluations of Importance,”Proceedings, 1976 Educators’ Conference. Chicago: American Marketing Association, Series No. 39, 344–9.
JöreskogK. G. (1970), “A General Method for Analysis of Covariance Structures,”Biometrika, 57, No. 2, 239–51.
26.
JöreskogK. G. (1971), “Statistical Analysis of Congeneric Tests,”Psychometrika, 36(June), 109–33.
27.
KaneJeffrey S., and LawlerEdward E.III (1978), “Methods of Peer Assessment,”Psychological Bulletin, 85(May), 555–86.
28.
KellyJ. Patrick (1974), “Functions Performed in Industrial Purchasing Decisions with Implications for Marketing Strategy,”Journal of Business Research, 2(October), 420–34.
29.
KraemerHelena C. (1979), “Ramifications of a Population Model for K as a Coefficient of Reliability,”Psychometrika, 44(December), 461–72.
30.
MarchJames G. (1956), “Influence Measurement in Experimental and Semi-Experimental Groups,Sociometry, 19(December), 260–71.
31.
McMillanJames R. (1973), “Role Differentiation in Industrial Buying Decisions,”Proceedings, 1973 Educators’ Conference. Chicago: American Marketing Association, Series No. 35, 207–11.
32.
PatchenMartin, (1963), “Alternative Questionnaire Approaches to the Measurement of Influence in Organizations,”American Journal of Sociology, 69(July), 41–52.
33.
PatchenMartin, (1974), “The Locus and Basis of Influence in Organizational Decisions,”Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 11(April), 195–221.
34.
PettigrewAndrew M. (1975), “The Industrial Purchasing Decision as a Political Process,”European Journal of Marketing, 9, 4–19.
35.
PhillipsLynn W. (1980), “Assessing Measurement Error in Key Informant Reports on Organizational Properties,” Working Paper No. 554, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.
36.
PhillipsLynn W., and BagozziRichard P. (1980), “On Measuring Organizational Properties: Methodological Issues in the Use of Key Informants,” Working Paper, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
37.
PlattenJ. H.Jr. (1950), How Industry Buys.New York: Scientific American.
38.
RobinsonPatrick J., FarisCharles W., and WindYoram (1967), Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing, Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
39.
SeidlerJohn (1974), “On Using Informants: A Technique for Collecting Quantitative Data and Controlling Measurement Error in Organization Analysis,”American Sociological Review, 39(December), 816–31.
40.
SiegelSidney (1956), Nonparametric Statistics.New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
41.
SpekmanRobert E. (1977), “A Contingency Approach to Power Relationships Within the Industrial Buying Task Group,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University.
42.
SpekmanRobert E. (1978), “A Macro-Sociological Examination of the Industrial Buying Center: Promise or Problem,”Proceedings, 1978 Educators’ Conference. Chicago: American Marketing Association, Series No. 43, 111–15.
43.
SpekmanRobert E., and CalderBobby J. (1978), “Narrowing the Conceptual-Empirical Gap in Organizational Buying Behavior,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 5, Keith HuntH., ed., Association for Consumer Research, 653–6.
44.
SpekmanRobert E., and SternLouis W. (1979), “Environmental Uncertainty and Buying Group Structure: An Empirical Investigation,”Journal of Marketing, 43(Spring), 54–64.
45.
SudmanSeymour, and BradburnNorman M. (1974), Response Effects in Surveys.Chicago: Aldine.
46.
WebsterFrederick E.Jr., and WindYoram (1972), Organization Buying Behavior.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
47.
WeigandRobert E. (1966), “Indentifying Industrial Buying Responsibility,”Journal of Marketing Research, 3(February), 81–4.
48.
WindYoram (1978), “Organization Buying Center: A Research Agenda,” in Organizational Buying Behavior, BonomaThomas V., and ZaltmanGerald, eds. Chicago: American Marketing Association,67–76.
