Bases of power in organizational buying decisions

Abstract

Managers developing industrial marketing strategy need information about the internal relationships among the key participants in an organizational buying center. This is particularly important in identifying the expected informal or nontask determinants in an organization's decision to buy. In this study, selected bases of power that tend to shape interpersonal influence processes in organizational buying centers are assessed for three key buying center participants in a new task purchase situation. The findings reveal the relative importance of selected bases of power, and differences in these relative importances by organizational position. The implications of these findings for the development of industrial marketing strategy are discussed.