Organizational buying as an antecedent of task-technology fit between purchase process in hockey clubs and e-business
Korhonen, Tatiana (2019)
Pro gradu -tutkielma
2019
School of Business and Management, Kauppatieteet
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2019092529738
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2019092529738
Tiivistelmä
Recent non-academic publications discuss that increasing number of consumers manage their relationships with enterprises without human interaction and estimate similar shift among the organizational buyers. Adoption of Internet technology and its influence on B2B buying also received attention from academics and represent relevant course for research. Literature review revealed that there is limited amount of works illustrating B2B buying and associated role of e-business tools for the specific industry context.
This study aims at investigation of organizational buying in order to identify what activities provide potential for support through e-business. The context for the study is apparel and equipment purchase by ice-hockey clubs. Buying organization represented the unit of analysis and multiple-case study was implemented among six Finnish ice-hockey clubs.
The results illustrated activities within different stages of the purchase, buying participants and their roles, discovered that supplier selection can be described as simple modified rebuy and buyer-seller exchange relationships can be conditionally characterized as routinized, which are amenable to automation. Findings revealed limited current utilization of technology tools for communication and transaction purposes during the purchase. Supported by the literature on e-business, the study identified potentials of electronic storefront providing access to buyer-specific catalogs of pre-contracted items, database of purchase history and functionality for order placement. These findings equip practitioners with insights for marketing and customer relationship management.
The study contributes to the literature by agreeing on inconsistency associated with viewing organizational buying as a sequential process, it also confirmed the dynamic nature of buying center and gave example of cases in which external organizations served as a buying participant. The study also commented on the attempt to utilize newly proposed framework of B2B buying modes for the description of buyer-seller relationships.
This study aims at investigation of organizational buying in order to identify what activities provide potential for support through e-business. The context for the study is apparel and equipment purchase by ice-hockey clubs. Buying organization represented the unit of analysis and multiple-case study was implemented among six Finnish ice-hockey clubs.
The results illustrated activities within different stages of the purchase, buying participants and their roles, discovered that supplier selection can be described as simple modified rebuy and buyer-seller exchange relationships can be conditionally characterized as routinized, which are amenable to automation. Findings revealed limited current utilization of technology tools for communication and transaction purposes during the purchase. Supported by the literature on e-business, the study identified potentials of electronic storefront providing access to buyer-specific catalogs of pre-contracted items, database of purchase history and functionality for order placement. These findings equip practitioners with insights for marketing and customer relationship management.
The study contributes to the literature by agreeing on inconsistency associated with viewing organizational buying as a sequential process, it also confirmed the dynamic nature of buying center and gave example of cases in which external organizations served as a buying participant. The study also commented on the attempt to utilize newly proposed framework of B2B buying modes for the description of buyer-seller relationships.