Personal selling and the purchasing function: where do we go from here?

The business-to-business selling function has changed over the years, with more informed and demanding buyers, prompting firms to move toward a more consultative, solution-selling approach. While these changes have been the focus of extensive research in the personal selling and sales management domain, the customer side of the interaction dyad requires more examination. Even within the context of the customer side, insufficient attention has been paid to the purchasing function in business-to-business (B2B) selling research. Given the increased importance in customer organizations of the purchasing function, this article presents a literature review that highlights the purchasing function's personal selling and sales management needs and argues that, as the purchasing function becomes more important and its needs evolve, personal selling and sales strategies also need to evolve. The article highlights areas for future research in this domain.     

Perceived product instrumentality: the process of scale purification and validation

Perceived product instrumentality (PPI) is a new construct that is proposed as a key process component of a general model of family purchasing behaviour. PPI reflects the degree to which consumers, apprehended as actors of social roles, deem a product to be helpful, facilitative of role performance, compatible with role identity and congruent with the self‐concept. The objective of this paper is threefold: (1) assess the PPI unidimensionality and reliability; (2) purify the PPI scale, and (3) assess its validity. First, a pilot survey was administered to a convenience sample of men and women, who filled in four identical lists of 33 items tapping their attitudes towards durables, and exploratory factor analysis was conducted on each set to explore the overall pattern of the items relationships. Five try‐out pools of different sizes (33, 28, 15, 13 and 9 items) were involved in the analysis. The 15‐item scale was retained. Secondly, a large‐scale survey was administered to 500 couples as part of an extensive research involving comprehensive model testing. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the whole sample for reliability and unidimensionality assessment. At times, the analysis is done on men's and women's sub‐samples separately in order to account for eventual differences among both populations. Thirdly, confirmatory factor was conducted, splitting the sample into two random halves: the generation sample and the validation sample. The first half served for the PPI scales purification. In this case, PPI was posited as the latent variable and the scale items were posited as the manifest ones. The second served to validate the PPI theory in a system's framework: PPI was posited as a latent dependent variable while other role orientations variables were posited as latent independent variables. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Using videotape modeling to facilitate generalized purchasing skills

Six students with moderate and severe disabilities were taught generalized purchasing skills through the use of videotape modeling in one, two, or three stores and in vivo instruction within one store. Training was conducted within three orders of treatments: (a) in vivo instruction followed by videotape training, (b) videotape training followed by in vivo instruction, and (c) concurrent videotape and in vivo instruction. Generalization probes were conducted in stores that were the same as those modeled on videotape, untrained stores that were infrequently probed (and never modeled on tape or taught directly), and novel stores that were probed only once after training. Results indicated the production of generalized purchasing skills by the students who received concurrent training and by the students who received sequential training. Videotape and in vivo training in isolation did not lead to generalized shopping skills. The results are discussed in terms of investigating the possible role of verbalization during videotape training on generalized responding and the effects of multiple probe interventions on inadvertent learning of critical skills.deceased.     

消费者购买决定与前额叶脑活动的不对称性——来自EEG的证据

摘要：目前营销科学界对消费者购买决策阶段的神经运作机制仍然缺乏准确的理解,本研究探索了大脑前额叶不对称性是否与消费者购买决策有关。采用田野实验方法,21名受试者在真实的在线购物中,分别对自己购物车里5件物品做出真实的购买决策,他们的EEG脑电图被完整记录了下来,共观察到104次购买决策过程。结果表明,在产品页面观看过程中,受试者的gamma频带前额叶不对称,与随后真实购买行为显著相关。alpha、beta频带额叶不对称与购买决策无关。结果还发现与商品的售价对beta和gamma不对称指数的调节效应,且调节效果正好相反。本研究发现了消费者在购买决策过程中一种独特的EEG成分——前额叶gamma波不对称指数（PAIγ）与肯定的购买意愿和实际购买行为相关性最强。     

Influences on the perceived risk of purchasing online

This paper examines whether the perceived risk of online purchasing by consumers varies with the frequency of previous purchases, satisfaction with previous purchase experiences, the good/service orientation of an intended purchase and the level of purchase decision involvement required. No association was found between the frequency of online purchasing and perceived risk, although satisfaction with prior internet purchases was negatively associated with the perceived risk of intended purchases, but only for low‐involvement products. Differences in perceived risk were associated with whether the intended purchase was a good or service and whether it was a high or low‐involvement product. Analysis of consumer perceived risks, disaggregated by type of risk and purchase situation, provides insight into impediments that may hinder the expansion of consumer purchasing using the internet. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications.     

群体购买情境下冲动性购买影响研究：解释水平视角

本研究基于解释水平理论视角,检验了消费者在群体购买情境中的冲动性购买行为.研究1采用2（解释水平：高vs.低）＆#215;2（自我建构：独立vs.互依）组间因子设计,用来检验解释水平是否调节自我建构类型对冲动性购买的影响;研究2采用2（解释水平：高vs.低）＆#215;2（认知模式：感知vs.模拟）组间因子设计,检验认知模式和解释水平对冲动性购买的联合影响.实验结果表明：群体购买情境下,消费者自我建构类别不同,冲动性购买意愿也不同,且受到解释水平的调节影响;群体购买情境下,消费者对他人认知模式的不同,对自身冲动性购买的影响也不同,解释水平在其中也起到了调节作用.     

How Ethical Are Ethical Purchasing Policies?

In recent years ethical purchasing policies have been promoted as potentially effective and promising ways of combatting global inequality and oppressive labour practices in developing countries. These initiatives have been launched on university campuses with the hope of opening a new front for improving labour rights under conditions of neo-liberal globalization. This paper is an attempt to respond to the critics of these policies, and especially their claims that ethical purchasing may have the perverse effect of increasing job losses and undercutting economic development in poorer countries. Although it can be shown that these criticisms are misguided, it is important to acknowledge that ethical purchasing should not be seen as a full-blown alternative to the kind of progress that can be achieved through state-centred labour regulation. Nevertheless, the new role of universities as monitors of corporate responsibility remains a promising one.     

Dimensions of brand purchasing behaviour: consumers in the 18–24 age group

This paper reports the results of a study of brand selection and loyalty within the 18–24 age group. The study explores brand loyalty behaviour across different product categories, and investigates the dimensions that drive loyalty behaviour within this age group. First, the construct of brand loyalty is defined, followed by an overview of key research in the area. Finally, the study itself is detailed. The study concludes that there is a significant difference in the degree of brand loyalty exhibited by the 18–24‐year‐old respondents across product categories. The dimensions of brand selection also vary by product type. Brand heritage in terms of parental influence was evident in coffee and toothpaste purchase, with brand as a reflection of self‐image being something that is important to clothing brands. Value and variety are important attributes of cereal brand selection. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.     

The Sheffield Stress on Women Demonstration Project: Summary and Reflections on Evaluation

The Sheffield Stress on Women Project (1992–1995) involved over 30 women's groups. Nearly 500 women took part in the groups, many of whom came with other local women to the Open Day Celebration which concluded the Project. Though the Project was successful within its own frame of reference, it has continued to be difficult to persuade local purchasers to fund these types of interventions for women. Against this background, conflicts and issues relating to the evaluation of the Project are discussed.     

Compulsive buying behavior: Re‐evaluating its dimensions and screening

Despite the significant research in the consumer behavior literature on compulsive buying behavior (CBB), there is still no general agreement about the dimensionality or diagnostic screening of the disorder. Previous studies have identified two principal dimensions: compulsivity and impulsivity, although more recent strands of theory characterize CBB with reference to loss of self‐control and behavioral addiction. This study challenges the impulsive–compulsive paradigm by validating a new model with compulsive and self‐control impaired spending dimensions. The model more closely reflects the disorder's ego‐dystonic character, routed in an anxiety‐based reactive mechanism with uncontrollable buying and an inability to rationalize the behavior and its consequences. The study also develops and cross‐validates a new seven‐item CBB screening tool, using a comparative analysis with three existing screeners and an independent sample. The findings indicate that compulsive buying results from both compulsive and self‐control impaired impulsive elements, which are characteristic of behavioral addiction.