Various research possibilities arise from the four dimensions
of buying: implementation, evaluation, reassessment, and
confirmation. In particular, we need descriptive research to
describe and understand the current state of buying, as sum marized in the following potential research questions:
& Are there circumstances in which the four buying process es are not contemporaneous? What subactivities and enti ties are involved in each process?
& Are they decentralized physically but integrated virtually?
& Will charting the cast of characters—animate and inani mate—involved in each buying process, across different
contexts, reveal interesting differences or patterns?
& Can developing visual representations of the buying ele ments’ consistency or variation reveal prototypical config urations in which specific sets of elements tend to covary?
& When and where do we find these modes of B2B buying?
& What market, macro-environmental, selling firm, and
buying firm factors are associated with each mode?
& Are there other modes?
& Can research offer support for the implicit conjectures and
theorizing presented in Table 2, or will it uncover other
ways in which the modes are similar or differ?
Beyond descriptive assessments, B2B analytics research
could model the performance implications of deploying dif ferent modes of buying and the associated types of relation ships, of centralized versus decentralized buying decisions,
and of centralized versus decentralized buying activities. Sim ulations might estimate the value-added contributions of dif ferent types of buying relationships, such as RERs or OBRs
compared with TBOs.
In addition, empirical modeling or survey research should
consider whether unexamined contextual factors alter the ef fectiveness or efficiency exhibited by different buying partic ipants and in different modes of B2B buying. For example,
& What factors indicate that an automated RER will perform
better than a human-implemented RER?
& In which conditions does local buying outperform central ized buying activities?
& What performance indicators should inform comparisons of
the strengths and weaknesses of different buying modes?
As the strategic importance of buying and buying rela tionships increase, research attention to these and many
other issues will offer significant potential to inform prac tice. Because B2B buying is an inviting area, in need of
theory development and creative research, we hope this
discussion prompts moves toward either a BuyGrid 2.0
or some other relevant framework.