Effects of Accountability on Symbolic Information Search and Information Analysis by Organizational Buyers

Abstract

Most studies of the organizational buying process assume that buyers acquire and use information "prosocially "-to make better decisions and promote their company's welfare. The authors propose, however, that demands to account for their behavior causes organizational buyers to also gather and use information for political purposes-to protect their own self-interest. The authors present the results of an empirical study that investigates the extent to which four types of accountability-informal, official, process, and decision accountability-result in political (or symbolic) information search and prosocial information analysis by organizational buyers. Study findings suggest that buyers accountable to superiors and those accountable to subordinates or peers engage in more symbolic information search. Buyers accountable for their decision-making process analyze information more extensively. Surprisingly, buyers accountable for decision outcomes neither search for symbolic information nor analyze information more extensively.