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.
相似文献Methodology/approach: The present study draws upon several streams of literature to examine this neglected aspect of B-to-B research. We offer a conceptual framework, followed by an empirical study of trade show attendees. Respondents evaluated various booth prototypes representing different combinations of key design elements via a conjoint-based method.
Findings: Findings suggest that design matters in a B-to-B trade show setting. Our results indicate that specific design elements affect an attendee’s willingness to enter different booths. Our sample displayed a coherent set of preferences for exhibit design features. Finally, we found that some attendee characteristics moderated the effect of design on preferences—notably the theory-driven characteristics of product agenda breadth and CVPA, rather than simple demographics produced these moderating effects.
Research implications: We have shown that the topic of design is relevant for B-to-B researchers. This research has identified meaningful and managerially relevant design preferences. In addition, we constructed a research framework for investigating behavioral responses to trade show booths, including four key design attributes. We empirically examined this framework with an easily reproducible conjoint methodology that may be useful for future research.
Practical implications: Our results provide actionable managerial guidance on the aesthetics of booth design. There is a general preference for closed designs i.e., attendees prefer having an intercept point in the booth where they may gain information. In addition, the closed design signals a higher density of things to see in the booth, while offering a private, safe environment as well as more spatial comfort. Attendees preferred higher amounts of surface decoration. Booths with low decoration tend to be perceived as less complex, and therefore less stimulating.
Originality/value/contribution: We examined long neglected implications of design to B-to-B marketing and investigated a key determinant of trade show performance. We believe this study has relevance to both scholars and practitioners while setting a roadmap for future research. 相似文献