Date of Award
1993
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Abstract
Sellers of technology-based capital equipment are often required to participate in a competitive bidding process prior to the buyer's final evaluation and choice. Factors such as the competing sellers' relative prices and relative functional benefits are certainly important to the buyer. However, the relative quality of the competing sellers' buyer-seller (B-S) relationships, both before and during the bidding process, may also play an important role. Therefore, the management problem addressed by this dissertation, stated from the seller's perspective, is how to manage B-S relationships to favourably affect the buyer's choice in competitive bid situations.;A research model comprising eight constructs and sixteen hypotheses is derived from three fundamental propositions: (1) the buyer's Choice from the short list of competing sellers is determined by the buyer's overall expectation of Relative Value; (2) the buyer's expectation of Relative Value is derived from a tradeoff of a set of interdependent Relative Expectations of the products' benefits and costs; and (3) the buyer's Relative Expectations of benefits and costs are affected by relative perceptions of the quality of the sellers' B-S Relationships.;Each construct in the research model is operationalized with a series of questionnaire items. Of particular importance, the three B-S relationship constructs are operationalized with questions regarding the sellers' relational behaviours, i.e., Attention, Collaboration, Intensity, and Reliability. The questionnaires were completed by 106 buyers of private branch exchange (PBX) telecommunications equipment, and the data were analyzed using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) program and Discriminant Analysis. The results demonstrate the research model's ability to predict over 88% of buyer Choice, and show strong statistical support for thirteen of the sixteen hypotheses.;In conclusion, the three fundamental propositions are validated: buyer Choice of seller is determined by the buyer's expectation of Relative Value; which is in turn derived from Relative Expectations of the products' benefits and costs; and which are in turn affected by relative perceptions of the quality of the sellers' B-S Relationships. Furthermore, the quality of an effective B-S Relationship can be defined by a set of four relational behaviours. Application of these findings may help sellers to favourably affect the buyer's Choice in bid situations.
Recommended Citation
Large, David William, "The Effect Of Buyer-seller Relationships On The Buyer's Evaluation And Choice" (1993). Digitized Theses. 2181.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/2181