Pre-negotiation strategy development in asymmetric bargaining situations: An investigation of new buys in the business-to-business marketing arena

Abstract

Buyer-seller negotiations are characteristics of purchase behavior often encountered in business-to-business marketing settings. This dissertation research explores how asymmetric power conditions and expected length of relationship affect buyer's pre-negotiation strategy development. Past research in purchasing, organizational behavior, and negotiation theory, in conjunction with in-depth interviews of industrial purchasing managers, guided the development of hypothetical negotiation scenarios. These scenarios were used as part of a self-administered mail survey sent to purchasing professionals, members of the National Association of Purchasing Management, for data collection and model testing. A second facet of the research explores whether students can be used for applied business research questions of this type and generate equally externally valid results. Scenarios similar to those administered to the purchasing professional sample were administered to undergraduate business students for the comparison.