Thomas Tellefsen

Commitment in business-to-business relationships: The role of organizational and personal needs

Abstract This article examines commitment in business-to-business (B2B) relationships from the purchasing managers perspective. It proposes that purchasing managers will form stronger bonds with suppliers who are better able to satisfy both the buying firms organizational needs as well as the purchasing managers personal needs. It also proposes that purchasing managers will be more influenced by personal rather than organizational need fulfillment. The results from a survey of purchasing managers support all hypotheses. The findings suggest that marketers will be able to develop stronger bonds with purchasing managers by offering benefit bundles that address both organizational and personal needs.

The use of group support systems in focus groups: Information technology meets qualitative research

This paper explores focus groups supported by group support systems (GSS) with anonymous interaction capability in two configurations: same time/same place and same time/different place. After reviewing the literature, we compare and contrast these anonymity-featured GSS-supported focus groups with traditional focus groups and discuss their benefits and limitations. We suggest directions for future research concerning GSS-supported focus groups with respect to technological implications (typing skills and connection speeds), national culture (high and low context; power distance), and lying behavior (adaptation of model of Hancock, J. T., Thom-Santelli, J., & Ritchie, T. (2004). Deception and design: The impact of communication technology on lying behavior. Proceedings of the 2004 conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 129-134), whereby lying is a function of three design factors: synchronicity, recordability, and distributedness).

Current and Future Interdependence

Abstract This paper proposes and tests a new dimension of dependence-time. Specifically, it proposes that a buyer may perceive a different degree of dependence in the current situation and in the situation that is anticipated to exist in the future. It also proposes that these different perceptions will have predictably different effects on two central constructs in channel relationships-opportunism and trust. The proposed relationships are tested with data collected from wholesalers. The evidence supports all the proposed relationships and provides insights into the basic dynamics of dependence.

We are all business marketers now

Purpose – This paper seeks to argue that a business‐marketing outlook is a lucid perspective for enhancing the value of business school faculty services provision and administration. Given the number of scholars worldwide in the area of business marketing (several hundred) compared with the number in consumer behavior (many thousands), there is speculation as to why business marketing attracted fewer scholars until recently (even though the phenomenon and subject have been around just as long). The evolution of business and industrial marketing as a bona fide field of academic study is documented. The importance of the business‐marketing arena is reaffirmed by arguing that it is not simply a field of inquiry but a perspective that helps legitimately align the academic world to the business world and ensures relevance and rigor in everything people do as marketing professors.Design/methodology/approach – This is both a historical examination and a contemporary analysis of business marketing. It is based on...

Antecedents and Consequences of Buying Center Leadership: An Emergent Perspective

ABSTRACT This paper provides a new model of buying center leadership. It draws upon the theory of emergent leadership to explore the potential for a relatively low-ranked member of a buying center to rise in stature and emerge as the groups de facto leader. It provides a theoretically-based analysis of the antecedents to such a role including communications, negotiating skills, power, and procedural control. It also reviews how these elements may be used to provide the group with two essential leadership functions–relational support and task support. It then examines how these functions, in turn, provide the individual with enhanced influence within the buying center. In this way, this paper provides a new conceptual framework for understanding buying center behavior.

The impact of buyer perceptions and situational factors on internet usage

The internet is rapidly gaining prominence in business-to-business marketing. As a result, there is a strong need to understand the role that it plays in inter-firm relationships. This paper addresses this issue by examining internet usage from the perspective of industrial buyers. We draw upon conceptual material, as well as a survey of 100 industrial buyers, to examine factors that may affect a buyers likelihood of using the internet. The findings suggest that an industrial buyers likelihood of using the internet is affected by the buyers perceptions of value and trust, as well as situational factors such as product type, decision stage, and the buyers overall internet experience. These findings have implications for how industrial marketers design their websites and integrate their internet strategies with their more traditional marketing programmes.