When it pays to have a friend on the inside: contingent effects of buyer advocacy on B2B suppliers |
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Authors: | Lawrence Justin M. Crecelius Andrew T. Scheer Lisa K. Lam Son K. |
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Affiliation: | 1.Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University, 428 Business Building, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA ;2.Ivy College of Business, Iowa State University, 2350 Gerdin Business Building, Ames, IA, 50011, USA ;3.Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business, University of Missouri, 428 Cornell Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA ;4.Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, C328 Benson Hall, Athens, GA, 30602, USA ; |
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Abstract: | As organizational buying systems grow more complex and sophisticated, suppliers increasingly rely on buyer advocacy: an individual buyer’s efforts to influence his/her colleagues such that the supplier’s standing is improved. Drawing from cognitive response theory, the authors hypothesize an inverted U-shaped relationship between a buyer’s advocacy for a supplier and the customer’s purchases from that supplier. They theorize that this effect is moderated by the advocate’s industry experience and customer–supplier relationship characteristics. An analysis of multisource data from a B2B service provider (Study 1) supports the predicted inverted U-shaped relationship, while a unique dataset from a large industrial supplier (Study 2) provides broad support for the hypothesized moderators. Finally, a randomized experiment (Study 3) replicates key findings and corroborates the theorized cognitive response mechanisms. Findings contribute to the limited literature on buyer advocacy within the organizational buying domain and offer practical implications for suppliers and buyers. |
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