IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/abk/jajeba/ajebasp.2011.456.459.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Business-to-Business: The Salesperson's Dilemma

Author

Listed:
  • Gopala Ganesh
  • Somjit Barat

Abstract

Problem statement: There is a lack of research on B2B e-commerce, especially involving input from B2B executives. To bridge that gap, we investigate whether (1) buyers and sellers differ significantly in their preference for traditional over the online purchase method across different products and across different purchase criteria and whether (2) buyers prefer the traditional over the online method across the straight rebuy, modified rebuy and new task buying situations. In the process, we test the following hypotheses: In general, buyers prefer traditional B2B over online for B2B purchases; buyers prefer the online over traditional method of transaction for straight rebuy; buyers prefer the traditional over online method of transaction for modified rebuy and buyers prefer the traditional over online method of transaction for new task. Approach: The authors queried B2B salespersons and B2B purchase professionals across a wide range of industries, representing a crosssection of products and purchase criteria. We use independent samples t-test for our hypotheses, since the main objective is to test direction and/significance of (differences in) preference. Results: The results show that traditional B2B is the buyers’ preferred procurement method. Buyers, however, prefer the online method for straight rebuy transactions and the traditional method for modified rebuy and new task situations. Conclusion: Efforts to measure purchase preference from a B2B buyer’s and seller’s perspectives are few and far between, the main reason being the difficulty of collecting data from industry professionals. Given the popularity of B2B e-commerce and the interesting managerial and academic implications we have provided, the authors believe that this research provides valuable contribution. We also offer suggestions for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Gopala Ganesh & Somjit Barat, 2011. "Business-to-Business: The Salesperson's Dilemma," American Journal of Economics and Business Administration, Science Publications, vol. 3(3), pages 456-459, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:abk:jajeba:ajebasp.2011.456.459
    DOI: 10.3844/ajebasp.2011.456.459
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://thescipub.com/pdf/ajebasp.2011.456.459.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://thescipub.com/abstract/ajebasp.2011.456.459
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.3844/ajebasp.2011.456.459?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Charles X. & Benaroch, Michel, 2004. "Supply chain coordination in buyer centric B2B electronic markets," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 113-124, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Jian-Cai & Lau, Hon-Shiang & Lau, Amy Hing Ling, 2008. "How a retailer should manipulate a dominant manufacturer's perception of market and cost parameters," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 43-60, November.
    2. Chen, Liang-Tu, 2014. "Optimal dynamic policies for integrated production and marketing planning in business-to-business marketplaces," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 46-53.
    3. Chen, Kebing & Xiao, Tiaojun, 2011. "Ordering policy and coordination of a supply chain with two-period demand uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 215(2), pages 347-357, December.
    4. Hua, Guowei & Cheng, T.C.E. & Wang, Shouyang, 2011. "Electronic books: To "E" or not to "E"? A strategic analysis of distribution channel choices of publishers," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(2), pages 338-346, February.
    5. Chun-Chin Wei & Liang-Tu Chen, 2021. "Supply Chain Replenishment Decision for Newsvendor Products with Multiple Periods and a Short Life Cycle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-13, November.
    6. Li, Xin & Lian, Zhaotong & Choong, Kwee Keong & Liu, Xiaoming, 2016. "A quantity-flexibility contract with coordination," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 273-284.
    7. Webster, Scott & Kevin Weng, Z., 2008. "Ordering and pricing policies in a manufacturing and distribution supply chain for fashion products," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 476-486, August.
    8. Chen, Haoya & Chen, Jian & Chen, Youhua (Frank), 2006. "A coordination mechanism for a supply chain with demand information updating," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 347-361, September.
    9. Hua, Zhongsheng & Li, Sijie & Liang, Liang, 2006. "Impact of demand uncertainty on supply chain cooperation of single-period products," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 268-284, April.
    10. Hsieh, Chung-Chi & Chang, Yih-Long & Wu, Cheng-Han, 2014. "Competitive pricing and ordering decisions in a multiple-channel supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 156-165.
    11. Renna, Paolo & Argoneto, Pierluigi, 2010. "Production planning and automated negotiation for SMEs: An agent based e-procurement application," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 73-84, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:abk:jajeba:ajebasp.2011.456.459. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jeffery Daniels (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://thescipub.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.