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Keywords Retail trade, Decision making, Purchasing
Abstract Assesses the influence that certain retail buyer characteristics have on how the buyers approach their buying task. By examining five different buyer characteristics and the relative importance that individual buyers place on six different product attributes, draws some pertinent conclusions as to how the buying task is approached. A total of 100 interviews were conducted with UK retail buyers of textiles and clothing in 35 companies, covering 62 separate division. The context for each interview was that of a new buy where the options were to source locally or from an international source. A PC-based package (judgmental analysis system, or JAS) was used to assess the importance of six buying criteria derived from the literature and perceived to be relevant in organisational buying. The results confirm what have been largely theoretical ideas of linkages between buyer characteristics and the importance that they place on different criteria during the decision-making process. Clear correlations exist, and these can be explained and supported by the qualitative data gathered during the study.
Introduction
This paper aims to examine what have been previously largely theoretical ideas of linkages between the characteristics of the buyer (their age, qualification, gender and experience), whether decision making is made collectively and their decision making (the criteria they use). As much of buyer decision making is context specific, we selected a closely defined context for our empirical work, retail buyers of textile products who are making a new purchase decision on whether to source nationally or internationally.
Decision criteria and buyer attributes in retail buying
We know that a number of different criteria are used by commercial and/or industrial buyers to decide between alternative products. For example Nilsson and Host (1987) reviewed 34 earlier studies, identifying a large number of criteria used when retail buyers assess suppliers. Their synthesis of these suggested that potential sales level, delivery, and financial terms were frequently used decision attributes. Weber et al.'s (1991) subsequent review of 74 articles since 1966, which examined the criteria used in selecting suppliers by all types of industrial buyer, identified many of the same criteria. These two papers form a comprehensive list of buying decision-making criteria. Additional literature corroborates this list and adds to it....