Journal of Customer Behaviour, 2006, 5, pages

ISSN1475-3928/2006/2/010001+01/ ©Westburn Publishers Ltd.

Arch G. Woodside1 and Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa2

Advancing Organisational Buying Behaviour Theory and Research: 1956-2056

Boston College University of Rhode Island

Yes, this article is ambitious in covering fifty years of OBB theory and research before and after 2006. “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread” comes readily-to-mind. Still, explicitly identifying and reflecting on landmark contributions in the literature likely helps to increase the quality of sensemaking as to where OBB theory and research is heading in the decades ahead. 1956 is an important OBB milestone because it included the publication of Cyert, Simon, and Trow’s “observation of a business decision”—a call for a descriptive theory of “how real human beings go about making choices in the real world.” CST (1956) illustrate propositions in their rudimentary descriptive theory via a thick description of one organisation’s real-life process in deciding on (not) buying a mainframe computer. CST’s landmark contribution follows a comparative method case-based logic of examining the fit between the rational-choice process theories with real-life process data. The OBB literature since 1956 includes deepening and extending of core propositions in CST’s early descriptive theory building. These advances include Mintzberg, Raisinghani, and Theoret’s (1976) mapping the “structure of unstructured decision-making,” von Hippel’s (1986) lead-user’s drive innovation proposal, Biemans (1991) identifying third-party influences in buying new technologies, Langley, Mintzberg, Pitcher, Posada, and Saint-Macary, (1995) “opening-up decision making theory to include seemingly random context influences, and other important milestones. The present article’s sensemaking of the 1956-2006 literature informs the building of

1 Correspondence: Arch G. Woodside, Boston College, Carroll School of Management, Department of Marketing, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA; telephone: +1-617-552-0504; fax: +1-617-332-209, e-mail: woodsiar@bc.edu 2 Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa, College of Business Administration, Ballentine Hall, 7 Lippitt Road, Kingston, RI 02881-0802, telephone: +1-401-874-2337, fax: +1-401-874-4312, e-mail: kferriscosta@uri.edu

2 Arch G. Woodside and Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa

case-based reasoning models that goes beyond the arguing among empirical positivists versus existential phenomenologists to a bright future that includes system dynamics and mixed methods research strategies.

Introduction What useful and coherent sensemaking conclusions might be drawn from reviewing the 1956-2006 organisational buying behaviour (OBB) literature? Building from such a review what are the likely major developments in OBB theory, research, and practice in the next fifty years? The present article’s objective is to answer these questions. Reflecting over fifty years of literature is done with eyes on finding broad patterns—roadmaps indicating worthwhile future areas of theory, research, and practice.

Prior reviews of the OBB literature include the following noteworthy contributions: broad and extensive commentary by Sheth (1996); Barclay and Bunn’s (2006) “starting to fill a gap” in the process heuristics OBB literature; and Lewin and Donthu’s (2005) meta-analysis of the purchase-situation influence on buying centre behaviour. Sheth’s (1996) article provides details of the contributions of 95 articles and books including briefs summarising advances in theory and research building from Sheth (1973), Robinson, Faris, and Wind (1967), and Webster and Wind (1972)—Sheth (1996) is a particularly useful introduction of the OBB literature including both European and North American contributions.

The present article considers alternative research paradigms and explanations of OBB vying for dominant logic status (cf. Prahalad & Bettis 1986; Bettis & Prahalad 1995). The objectives here do not include offering another thorough review of the OBB literature. The objectives do include identifying competing propositions within each of the two major theoretical models examining OBB as well as to suggest a rapprochement between empirical positivistic and existential phenomenological methods in OBB research.

Following this introduction, section two summarises the unwritten assumptions and testable propositions for the two major theoretical visions (i.e., models) that represent the foundation paradigms in the 1956-2006 OBB literature. Section three discusses a number of the milestone theoretical-empirical contributions in the OBB literature. Section four briefly summarises the core propositions of researchers advocating empirical positivistic versus existential phenomenological and other data collection-interpretation methods found in OBB studies. Section five provides conclusions and suggestions for research steps for accomplishing a rapprochement between

Advancing Organisational Buying Behaviour Theory and Research 3 empirical positivism and existential phenomenology. The Two Major Theoretical Visions In OBB Research A series of relating implicit (unconscious) and explicit (conscious) propositions mould the two major theoretical and research approaches to the study of OBB. An early and continuing major OBB paradigm follows a rational choice paradigm. OBB researchers following the rational choice paradigm (often implicitly) predominately (1) craft a deductive theory in predicting what should occur in phases, processes, and outcomes in OBB and (2) apply data collection and apply analysis tools that empirical positivists recommend, that is, surveys and statistical hypotheses testing.

A later and also continuing, alternative, major OBB paradigm follows a behavioural theory paradigm. OBB researchers following the behavioural theory paradigm (often explicitly after arguing against the rational choice paradigm) predominately (1) craft an inductive theory of observations of what does occur in phases, processes, and outcomes in OBB and (2) apply data collection and analysis tools that existential phenomenologists recommend, that is, “direct,” face-to-face, data collection and case-based, data interpretation tools (e.g., mapping strategic thought, see Huff 1990; Woodside & Samuels 1981).

The following questions are relevant particularly for the rational choice paradigm. “How does an organisation go about solving a given buying problem/opportunity? How does the organisation perform the steps in solving buying problems—search for alternative solutions, evaluating alternatives, decide, implement, and evaluate outcomes?” A core (usually implicit) assumption in applying the rational choice paradigm in OBB research is that participants in buying activities are able and willing to accurately report what happened and provide meanings and evaluations as to what happened. Data collection of such reports is done usually via closed and open-ended written surveys. While substantial evidence indicates that this core assumption is inaccurate (see Woodside 2006), the written survey method still is pervasive in OBB research.

The following alternative questions are relevant particularly for the behavioural theory paradigm. “How does an organisation go about sensing and labelling features-in-contexts as problems/opportunities? What persons, thoughts, feelings, and actions are present before, during, and after labelling problems/opportunities?” A core assumption in applying the behavioural theory paradigm is that participants in buying activities are only partly able and willing to accurately report what happened and provide meanings and evaluations as to what happened (see Woodside 2003). Researchers applying the behavioural theory paradigm often embrace the view that the data

4 Arch G. Woodside and Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa collection needs to include real-time direct observation and multiple rounds of interviews with multiple participants in the buying activities to achieve accurate reports of what happened and both the participants’ held implicit and explicit meanings and evaluations of what happened (e.g., Woodside & Wilson 2000).

“Observation of a buying decision” (Cyert, Simon, & Trow 1956) is a seminal contribution in advancing the OBB literature. The authors, CST, describe the distinctions between the rational and behavioural theory of the firm in the context of a firm buying computer equipment in 1952. “The decision was captured and recorded by securing the company’s permission to have a member of the research team present as an observer in the company’s offices on substantially a full-time basis during the most active phases of the decision process” (p. 238). CST (1956) provide a ten-page description of persons, activities, written reports, search behaviours, interactions (e.g., formal and informal meetings within the firm, third-parties, and potential suppliers), decisions, and revisions of decisions. CST conclude that “the data support strongly the assertion made in the introduction that searches for alternative courses of action constitute a significant part of non-programmed decision-making—a part that is neglected by the classical theory of rational choice….An important reason for the prominent role of search in the decision process is the ‘problem’ to be solved was in fact a whole series of ‘nested’ problems, each alternative solution to a problem at one level leading to a new set of problems at the next level” (p. 247).

Chart I appearing in CST (1956) provides a skeletal outline of some of the programming steps for building an artificial intelligence system that captures the nested problems and steps relating one subprogram to the next; “The various program steps of the decision process fall into several subprograms, some of which have been indicated in Chart I” (p. 248). While not referring to their theory proposals as building an “artificial intelligence” model, the CST article clearly includes the proposal for future research.

CST’s proposal for programming seemingly nonprogrammable decisions is a continuing theme in the stream of OBB literature. While not referring to CST (1956), subsequent work contributing to this theme includes examining “information processing model of executive decision” (Howard & Morgenroth 1968); “the structure of ‘unstructured’ decision processes” (Mintzberg, Raisinghani, & Théorêt 1976); “when firms change direction” (Huff, Huff, & Barr 2000), and “constructing thick descriptions of marketers’ and buyers’ decision process in business-to-business relationships” (Woodside & Wilson 2000).

More recently Schank (2005) emphasises that such modelling work is possible, “Now it is time to build dynamic story-based systems that converse

Advancing Organisational Buying Behaviour Theory and Research 5 with users about real problems they are having in real life … or in a simulation and that provide up-to-date and changing answers depending on the complexity and dynamic nature of the story database that comprise the knowledge that a company (or a society) collectively owns” (p. 273).

AI [artificial intelligence], by my definition here, is simply the proper representation of the nonconscious knowledge that people employ when they accomplish various mental feats. Finding the right story at the right time to tell is, of course, one of those amazing mental feats. People do not know how they do it, they simply do it. In AI, our job is to figure out what they are doing and represent it in such a way that the computer can do the same kinds of things.

(Schank 2005, p. 270).

Huff, Huff, and Barr (2000) provide a rather advanced application of completing the leap from mapping non-conscious and conscious knowledge and processes to building AI systems from this information, running simulations of the AI systems for different scenarios, and examining the alternative outcomes within a behavioural theory of the firm for embracing versus rejecting new technologies—a central OBB issue.

Recognising and calling attention to this broad and important theme is the present article’s main contribution. The research theme of linking causal mapping, system dynamic modelling and building AI systems of complex and seemingly unstructured decisions-processes is useful in advancing theory and providing very practical insights into increasing the quality and outcomes of decisions. The structuring, understanding, simulating, and improving decisions-processes are where the OBB is heading during 2006-2056. Section three provides a closer look at the paradigm shifts during 1956-2006 serving to stimulate successful future programming of seemingly unprogrammable decisions. OBB Literature Milestones Advancing A Paradigm Shift Toward A Behavioural Theory Of The Firm Figure 1 summarises ten of the main issues in the 1956-2006 OBB literature. Figure 1 includes early and broadened views for each issue and an exemplar study suggesting the theoretical need and empirical support for the broadened view.

The intention behind identifying ten issues does not include the implication that 1956-2006 considers only these issues. A core proposition in the mainly European-based IMP Group (industrial marketing and purchasing group of scholars in the early years mainly working in five European countries, see Ford 1990, 1998; Hakansson 1982) is an example of

6 Arch G. Woodside and Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa The Organisational Buying Behaviour Research Paradigm Shift from 1956-2006

Issue Earlier View Later Broadened View Shift Exemplar

• Decision Maker Purchasing Buying centre Johnston & Bonomo (1981)

• Decision Process Sequential phases Phases with feedback loops Witte (1972)

• Problem Classification Yes/no RRB-MR-New

Task Robinson, Faris & Wind (1967)

• Search Process Extensive Localised Cyert, Simon & Trow (1956)

• Goal Optimising Satisficing Simon (1967) • Innovation Source Manufacturer Lead user von Hippel (1986)

• Facilitators None Third Party Biemans (1989, 1991) Hillebrand & Biemans (2003)

• Method Survey; balanced score card Direct research Mintzberg (1979)

• Data Analysis Indexes; ratings Pattern matching; system dynamics modelling

Wilson & Woodside (1998); Sterman (2003)

• Choice Process Compensatory Contingency Montgomery (1975) Figure 1. Paradigm Shifts in OBB Theory and Research, 1956-2006 work that Figure 1 does not include. Research reports by the IMP Group supports the usefulness of shifting from an early view of examining OBB from a static firm-internal activity to a broadened view of examining the dynamic interactions between OBB and organisational marketing behaviour—thus, the work of the IMP Group suggests that the major research focus should be OBB-OMB interactions over weeks, months, and years. The IMP Group of organisation marketing-purchasing researchers meets annually in an international conference to describe new research advances relating to this core proposition. Work by the IMP Group includes the use of empirical positivistic research designs (e.g., Hakansson 1982) and interpretative case study research designs (e.g., Ford 1998). The Shift from the Buyer and Purchasing Manager to the Buying Centre

Research reports in the 1970s and 1980s include the proposition that a broadened view of the decision maker beyond the buyer or purchasing manager is necessary to more accurately reflect reality in OBB. For example, Spekman and Stern (1979) provide a conceptual framework for examining OBB in a multiple-persons across user-engineer—buyer-senior executive

Advancing Organisational Buying Behaviour Theory and Research 7 contexts. Johnston and Bonoma (1981) provide strong empirical support of an empirical positivistic based theory of buying centre dimensions. Woodside and Sherrell (1980) describe how buying centre membership is fluid/dynamic depending on the stage in the buying process receiving the most attention in any meeting, day, or week. Such a behavioural theory multi-person perspective appears clearly in CRT’s 1956 report even though later work does not reference this earlier work. The Shift from Rational to a Behavioural Theory of Decision Processing

Major tenants of the rational theory of decision making includes the propositions that (1) a decision process begins with recognition of a (buying) problem or opportunity; (2) the decision maker evaluates alternative courses of action by considering a number of attributes or consequences using some combination rule (e.g., compensatory choice rule); (3) alternatives present themselves to the decision maker, alternatively, search is thorough and identifies all possible alternatives; (4) the process follows a specific one-way sequence of decision making. CST’s (1956) case research study refutes all three of these propositions and they suggest a new framework for building “the theory of decision”—what the present article refers to as the behavioural theory of decision processing.

The behavioural theory includes the propositions that buyers engage, unconsciously and consciously, in framing problems/opportunities; decision makers evaluate alternatives using non-compensatory rules even if they formally use compensatory rules (see Woodside & Wilson 2000); search is never thorough, search is localised and ends usually when a satisfactory option is found; the process does not follow a linear sequence (see Witte 1972; Mintzberg et al. 1976).

In Germany, Witte’s (1972) research concludes that phases in decision processes are identifiable but that for non-programmed (important) decisions all time periods (e.g., each month) include all of the phases—(re)framing of problems/opportunities continues even as “final” decisions are being made. In a thorough literature review and direct (i.e., face-to-face observations and interviews) of mostly OBB decisions, Mintzberg et al. (1976) refer to and support the work of CST (1956) and Witte (1972).

Mintzberg et al. refer to decision phases as routines following under one of three major elements: identification, development, and selection. Identification includes recognition and diagnosis. Development includes design and search. Selection includes analysis/evaluation, judgment and evaluation/choice, bargaining: evaluation/ choice, search, and authorization. They conclude that the 25 decision processes they examine fall into seven groupings according to the process implemented (see Mintzberg et al. for details):

8 Arch G. Woodside and Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa

Type 1: simple impasse decision processes Type 2: political design decision processes Type 3: basic search decision processes Type 4: modified search decision processes (equipment) Type 5: basic design decision processes (marketing) Type 6 blocked design decision processes (public works) Type 7: dynamic design decision processes (facilities).

Mintzberg et al.’s decision types are part of a stream of theoretical work and field studies pointing out the usefulness for theory and practice of classifying buying problems into distinct categories. Thus, the shift in problem classification follows. The Shift in Classifying Buying Problems from Yes/No to Three-Plus Categories

The third issue in Figure 1 illustrates the shift from the simple recognition of a buying problem toward a more complex framing of organisational buying problems. Howard and Sheth’s (1969) categorizing of buying problems into routinised response behaviour (RRB), modified rebuys (RBs), and new task buys (NTBs) represents this shift toward complexity in framing buying problems (also see Bunn 1993; Puto & Qualls 1989). The key points in this shift include recognizing that not all buying problems are the same and that no search for alternatives and no evaluation occurs for RRB while search for alternatives and evaluation stages in decision making are usually a major occurrence in NTBs—alternative framing of decisions affects the buying process in predictable ways.

The shift toward greater complexity in framing buying decisions now includes the recognition that organisations engage in such framing processes mostly automatically (i.e., unconsciously, see Wilson, McMurrian, & Woodside 2001; Barclay & Bunn 2006). Since the mapping of such processes is helpful for building models for understanding OBB and useful for recognises anomalies between framing and solving buying problems, the expectation is high that such research will grow during the next fifty years. The Shift in Viewing Search Processes from Extensive to Local

The study by CST (1956) illustrates that OBB search for alternative suppliers is almost always done using local information sources and usually in a manner that minimizes effort rather than maximise accuracy in finding an optimal option. Woodside and Wilson (2000) and Woodside (2003) demonstrate the building of binary contingency models of the thinking and doing processes in real-life OBB search processes. Related research issues that will receive attention during the next decades include, the framing

Advancing Organisational Buying Behaviour Theory and Research 9 processes leading to internet search processes and how the use of the internet affects choices and outcomes. The Shift toward User-Centred Design Prior to Manufacturing and Buying New Products

Prior to von Hippel’s (1988) Sources of Innovation, the initiating roles of customer and supplier organisations of manufacturing firms in industrial product and service innovations were unrecognised. “Invent this device for my firm and my firm will buy it,” is a buying influence that von Hippel (2005) continues to identify as a primary impetus in much innovation and adoption processes among organisational customers and their suppliers. Understanding and describing the process of creating and buying innovative products and services

Von Hippel provides an important insight into OBB research: only following several probing questions (asked face-to-face), do members of manufacturing firms start to mention the roles played by customers and/or suppliers in the innovation process involving the manufacturing firms’ relatively new products. This point is a telling observation supporting the necessity of being there: doing direct research that often includes interviewing multiple participants more than once. Each is mandatory, even if nearly prohibitively time-consuming, for learning what is really happening in OBB. The Shift beyond the Buyer-Seller Organisations to include Third Parties

Biemans (1989, 1991) also revises understanding and description of who participants in the innovation and adoption process by identifying third-party actors and their critical roles in facilitating new product development and acceptance—Biemans complements and extends what von Hippel does for broadening attention beyond the manufacturing firm in innovation and new product buying processes.

Biemans (1989, 1991) also notes the necessity of direct (face-to-face with follow-up interviews) research in uncovering the roles of third-parties in OBB processes involving new products. Complementing and extending Biemans earlier work, Woodside and Biemans (2005) illustrate findings from case study research that supports the following proposition: innovation, manufacturing, and adoption processes involve the combination of multiple sets of third-parties—each third party performing specialised functions necessary for successfully gaining customer adoption of new products built on new technological platforms. Much earlier, CST (1956) describe third-party involvement in a buying process for a dynamically discontinuous innovation—a manufacturing firm hired a consulting firm to assist in the decision process to buy a centralised computer system; the hiring of the

10 Arch G. Woodside and Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa

Source: adapted from Figure 9 in Woodside (1994). Figure 2. Example of Network of Organisations involved in New Task OBB-OMB for Electronic Technologies

consulting firm involved a sub-buying process that included interviewing two competing consulting firms by a specialty-formed buying centre. A second “independent expert” was hired to check on the work and confirm the interpretations and recommendations made by the first consulting firm.

Longitudinal studies of OBB for new task buying decisions of dynamically discontinuous innovations support and extends Biemans’ third-party hypothesis to include the mapping of a complex network of firms and people entering and existing from the buying process. Such networks often include

Advancing Organisational Buying Behaviour Theory and Research 11 suppliers of suppliers, industrial distributors, customer firms, customer firms of customer firms, government approving agencies, independent certifying boards, consultants, and banks or other financial lenders. Woodside (1994) illustrates the drama inherent in network anatomies of industrial marketing and purchasing of new manufacturing technologies; Figure 2 summarises the organisations involved in one example of network research. Recognising such networks and the dynamic behaviour of networks supports a major tenant of the IMP Group: the reality of network behaviour requires focusing research on the interaction of organisational marketing behaviour (OMB) and OBB along with third-parties over several time periods (see Ford 1990, 1998; Woodside & Biemans 2005). The Shift to Direct Research

Substantial evidence supports the following propositions: The majority of human thinking is done unconsciously. Humans learn their unconscious thinking from observing their own behaviour. Humans are rather inaccurate and incomplete in their explicit (conscious) thinking (i.e., interpreting, evaluating, deciding, introspecting) about their implicit (unconscious) thinking and about their own behaviour. See Gladwell (2004), Wilson (2004), and Wagner (2003) for reviews of evidence supporting these three propositions.

Recognising the validity of these three propositions undermines the dominant logic in OBB of asking questions—especially closed ended questions from the distance of a mail survey. Mintzberg (1979) presents details of “the emerging strategy of ‘direct research’”. Mintzberg (1979) recommends being there; directly observing behaviour in and between organisations and also asking questions after observing meetings and events of the participants in meetings and events.

This shift to direct research from asking closed-end, fixed point scaled questions should not necessarily imply limited research only to using interpretive, qualitative, data analysis. The use of system dynamics modelling (see Huff, Huff, & Barr 2000), choice modelling of OBB decision processes (e.g., see Montgomery 1975), and the quantifying of communications (e.g., see Pettigrew 1979) illustrate the use of mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) designs in OBB research.

Still, large mail or on-line surveys requiring written responses and completion of closed-end questions remains the dominant logic. The interaction of several factors encourage the use of distant rather than direct research: the lack of exposure/knowledge of research on the dominating influence of unconscious thinking; the false belief that generalising to a population occurs only from collecting data from a representative sample of the population; the exquisite nature and training acquired by the researcher

12 Arch G. Woodside and Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa in structural equation modelling using data from fixed-point responses; the false belief that glosses of fixed-point responses are isomorphic to the thoughts and actual behaviour being examined, the false belief that one person per organisation can accurately inform the research about her firm’s OBB; the lack of knowledge and training on the use of building in degrees of freedom in case study data for statistical hypothesis testing (see Wilson and Woodside 1999); the structuring and use of time by academic researchers rarely permitting absences from campus settings for direct-research data collection. Given the availability of useful data collection and interpretation tools, the literature, and the telling weaknesses of distant research, as well as the fact that some researchers have been able to do direct research early in their careers (Biemans, Morgenroth, Mintzberg, von Hippel)—for their doctoral dissertations for example—suggest that the emerging strategy of direct research will become the dominant logic during 2006-2056. Finally…possibly. The Shift in Data Analysis toward Pattern Matching and System Dynamics Modelling

Most OBB is classifiable into a theoretical category (e.g., rational, behavioural rational, political, garbage can, or some combination of these or others). Each theory includes a distinct pattern of propositions. The relative degree of match of OBB to each theory is a useful way of learning the degree of inductive research fit to theory, as well as identifying and attempting to explain anomalies among data and theories. Campbell (1975) suggests that generalising from case study data to theory is possible and useful from such “building in degrees of freedom” in data-theory pattern matching. Wilson and Woodside (1999) provide a complete exposition of Campbell’s suggestions that includes empirical examples resulting in statistical hypothesis testing of the applicability of alternative theories to the case data.

System dynamic modelling (see Sterman 2000), for increasing understanding of nonlinear relationships containing feedback loops (i.e., OBB) that includes computer simulations of the models, is entirely possible. Hall (1984) provides an early example of system dynamic modelling of the operations of a failing business enterprise. Hall’s study includes the interactions of OMB and OBB variables leading to enterprise failure. The point here is that currently dominating linear, one-directional, thinking will be supplemented and enriched during 2006-2056 because system dynamic modelling (SDM) captures the complexity and dynamics of OMB-OBB interactions and the software tools for SDM are becoming very user friendly. The Shift toward Contingency Modelling

Research on both unconscious and conscious thinking indicates that

Advancing Organisational Buying Behaviour Theory and Research 13

Source: adapted from Montgomery (1975).

Figure 3. Gatekeeper Analysis humans do not use compensatory decision processes even when they report doing so. Humans think locally and contingently—frequently with disastrous consequences. Humans tend not to think about thinking about what decision rules are possible to apply. However, remarkably, humans are capable of developing written decision rules and procedures that, when applied, result in more effective decisions compared to decisions relying on insight (and implicit judgment) alone (see Gigerenzer, Todd, & The ABC Research Group 2000). Humans often become upset upon learning the choice made using independent decision rules and procedures, when the choice differs from their personal preferences (see Gladwell 2005 for a partial review of the literature).

Research in OBB that maps applicable buying contingency processes includes the studies by Gladwin (1989), Montgomery (1975), Woodside (2003), and Woodside and Wilson (2000). Figure 3 illustrates part of Montgomery’s 1975 findings of the contingency process of a supermarket buying committee in accepting and rejecting carrying new product offerings from manufacturers. In Figure 3, if the manufacturer has a highly favourable

14 Arch G. Woodside and Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa reputation (denoted as 1 versus 2-5 in Figure 3) and the committee judges the product to be very new (rating of 1 or 2), the decision to accept is reached. Decisions to accept for manufacturers with poor reputations follow a relatively complex path that more often leads to rejection; see Figure 3 for details.

While ratings appear in Figure 3, the ratings are really processed in the form of combinations of yes/no binary rules. Montgomery’s findings indicate what professional supermarket buying decisions look like external, descriptive, decision processes and do not necessarily match with the descriptions of the processes that managers on the committee might provide—the contingency diagram is Montgomery’s etic interpretation from his observing the committee’s deliberations.

In summary, the shift in OBB decision theory and research is toward greater realism, complexity, and face-to-face data collection and away from implicitly assuming single-actor decision making using compensatory rating instruments with data collected via mail surveys. Due to the dramatic increases in useful sense making resulting from this shift, the next fifty years will witness more applications of mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) research designs and the combination of case research reports with system dynamic modelling. Core Propositions of Researchers Advocating Empirical Positivistic Versus Existential Phenomenological Paradigms Most OBB journal articles apply research-method propositions that follow from empirical positivism. Such articles include statistical hypothesis testing usually of rating responses to closed-end questions from a small share (< 30%) of respondents to a sample of managers in different organisations—most often one manager is asked to respond per organisation. If two managers respond per organisation, resolutions to differences in responses are rarely sought or achieved. These reports often include exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis or structural equation models that assume some dynamic ordering of variables, even though data is collected in a one-time survey. The researcher following this operationalisation of empirical positivism explicitly or implicitly assumes an objective stance towards the inquiry: a valid way of knowing one true reality exists and the study seeks to learn and report this knowledge.

Existential phenomenology seeks to describe and explain behaviour principally by being there: by observing the dynamics of events, talk, outcomes, and participant interpretations of what is happening. An extreme phenomenological stance includes the view that “objectivity is impossible: theories precede facts and interpretation precedes perception. Otherwise,

Advancing Organisational Buying Behaviour Theory and Research 15 how would some signs be singled out and prioritized as more significant or more meaningful [than others]” (Mick 1986, p. 207)? This extreme view includes the proposition that subjective observation (introspection) is independently unconfirmable. Woodside (2006) reviews the literature refuting this unconfirmability proposition.

Both approaches offer useful principles in need of explicit statement. The creative possibility does exist to empirically examine the objective and subjective views/meanings of reality by collecting explicit and implicit meaning data from participants in OBB. Such data collection might include describing the observed behaviour to the participants for their interpretation and elaboration in multiple rounds of interviews. Woodside, Pattinson, and Miller (2005) more fully develop this approach. Advocates of existential phenomenology need to recognise the possibility of both the researcher and participant being able to collect and compare explicit and implicit meanings held by OBB participants. Advocates of empirical positivism need to recognize the fatal flaws in the current dominant logic of collecting responses to closed-end questions from one respondent per organisation—responses requiring vast mental transformations by the informant of events into beliefs recordable using an instrument with 1 to 7 scaled items. Useful out-of-the-ordinary paradigms for research and theory advances are available as the shifts discussed in OBB research indicate. Conclusions and Illustrating Achieving Synergies between Empirical Positivism and Existential Phenomenology Research during 2006-2056 will continue the shift toward describing and understanding complex dynamic OBB-OMB interactions that include upstream, downstream, and third party participants using research tools that more often combine mixed methods designs and system dynamic modelling. Combinations of direct research, causal mapping, and simulating the dynamic processes will supersede the current dominant logic of distant research using mail surveys with closed-end fixed point scale items. Multiple rounds of etic (researcher) and emic (participant) interpretations of data will be more common than found in the 1956-2006 literature.

Rather than forego empirical positivism for existential phenomenology, advances in linking direct research, causal mapping, system dynamic modelling, and artificial intelligence systems will show how to achieve the benefits of combining interpretive data and formal hypothesis testing of process and outcomes of OBB within real and simulated environments. The work by Huff, Huff, and Barr (2000) is a leading edge example of what this new OBB research paradigm is going to achieve during 2006-2056.

Examples of solving the following puzzle are now appearing in literature

16 Arch G. Woodside and Kathleen R. Ferris-Costa that relates to organizational marketing and buying behaviour: How can we capture (simulate) alternative realities that includes multiple-path relationships among variables with dynamic feedback loops that permits multiple views among participants of micro and macro relationships? Such solutions provide the ability to play (i.e., conduct what-if analysis) with changing the size or direction of a direct relationship between two variables to learn the indirect and feedback impact through the system of OBB-OMB relationships. The really exciting point here is implicit but an explicit statement is possible and should be helpful: synergistic mixed-method data collection and analytic designs that combine dynamic, interpretive-case study and dynamic empirical-positivistic, variable-centred research will end the arguing among empirical positivists and existential phenomenologists. Existential phenomenologists will adjust (relinquish) the simplistic view that relative interpretations are untestable. Empirical positivists will adjust (relinquish) the views that one reality is occurring; simplistic proposals of “key success factors” and non-dynamic structural equation models; and that closed-end, fixed-point item survey questions are sufficient or even necessary. The research by Hall and Menzies (1983) illustrates these points—research that combines interpretive research including collecting data for making explicit the implicit beliefs of executives, building a dynamic systems, variable-based, model with feedback loops, and including what-if analysis leading to alternative dynamic outcomes. This essay calls for OBB researchers to read, adopt, and expand on the new interpretive-dynamic-positivistic approaches that Huff, Huff, and Barr (2000), Hall and Menzies (1984), and Sterman (2000) illustrate are possible to achieve—the tools are available and applicable for building, testing and generalising theory from research that combines case and variable based data.

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