Purchasing Agents’ Use of Negotiation Strategies

The authors report the findings from a field study of purchasing agents negotiating rebuy purchases of component parts. The negotiating stance adopted by industrial buyers is characterized by their reliance on three basic negotiation strategies: problem solving, manipulating perceptions about competition, and tough tactics. A structural model relating the purchasing agent's use of each of these strategies to six characteristics of the purchase context (material cost sensitivity of the buying firm, supplier competition, uniqueness of the buying firm's specifications, buyer's cooperative orientation, having information, and formal planning) is developed and empirically tested with data collected in a national survey of more than 300 purchasing agents. The results demonstrate the ability of the contextual variables to predict the emphasis purchasing agents will place on each of the individual strategies in any particular set of negotiations.

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