A Qualitative Study Of International Organizational Buyer Behavior

The primary goal of this qualitative research was to gather information from practitioners about the buying process used by companies in the United States and Germany when purchasing customized software. Before using a popular organizational buyer behavior process model for an international study the author believed it was important to examine whether companies in the countries in the study actually used each step of the model. A multiple-case study design was chosen, since it allowed both for a better understanding of the actual software buying process used by companies and for a comparison of buying processes between companies. The author observed and interviewed individuals at four company’s corporate headquarters, two companies in the United States and two companies in Germany. The study found that both Americans and German companies do, to varying degrees, go through each stage of a widely used organizational buyer behavior model. It was also observed, however, that the amount of time and effort dedicated to different stages of the model varied by country. The study also identified differences between buyers in the United States and Germany in regard to the perceived importance of certain vendor selection criteria, which provides support for future empirical studies.