Industrial Purchasing: An Empirical Exploration of the Buyclass Framework

The Robinson, Faris, and Wind buyclass framework has been called one of the most useful concepts in organizational buyer behavior, yet the entire model has received little empirical attention. Part of the explanation is the difficulty of obtaining valid data from members of the buying center. The authors study the buyclass framework using a novel approach: querying the managers of salesforces about the behavior their salespeople encounter on the part of their industrial customers. In phase 1, model development, the authors study the model's applicability in a relatively homogeneous, controlled setting (one industry, few firms). In phase 2, model replication, they extend and validate the phase 1 findings using multiple firms and industries. Much of what salespeople observe is found to correspond closely to the buyclass theory of organizational buyer behavior. Also, the “problem newness” and “information needs” dimensions are found to be strongly related, as expected. However, “seriousness of consideration of alternatives” seems to be a separate dimension that does not operate entirely as predicted by the buyclass framework.