1251549 Buying Center Bonoma

The Buying Center: Structure and Interaction Patterns
Author(s): Wesley J. Johnston and Thomas V. Bonoma
Source: Journal of Marketing, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Summer, 1981), pp. 143-156
Published by: American Marketing Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1251549 .
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WESLEY
J.JOHNSTON
V.BONOMA
&THOMAS
This article reports a first step toward developing some quantifiable dimensions of the industrial buying task group, called the buying center. Group composition and interaction processes were examined for purchases of capital equipment and industrial services in 31 firms. Data were analyzed to test the soundness of a communications network perspective on the buying center and the managerial implications of such a perspective. Equipment and service purchase measures differed reliably across several indices suggested by our theoretical orientation. Organizational structure and purchase situation attributes correlated in generally expected directions with the dimensions of the buying group.

THE
BUYING CENTER:
STRUCTURE
AND
INTERACTI
PATTERNS

Introduction
THE

concept of the buying center refers to all those members of an organization who become involved in the buying

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