Lakhasly

According to the most recently published U.S. Department of Commerce (2010; http://www.census.gov/econ/estats/2010, assessed January 2015) statistics, business-to-business (B2B) transactions account for $10.7 trillion, or nearly 42 %, of total U.S. revenues.The changing landscape of B2B buying Increasing seller sophistication The impact of technological changes Increasing importance and growth of emerging markets The ISBM hosted a mini-conference in Orlando, Florida, in February 2014, to bring together leading B2B scholars who could exchange ideas in each of these domains and develop a research agenda for B2B buying.The extended B2B purchasing process (which can take months or years) and its interactive nature (involving multiple members of both the buying and selling organizations) make it difficult to spec- ify the functional relationships between the marketing efforts of a supplier and the responses by a buyer.Because the United States accounts for roughly 22 % of the global economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ World_Development_Indicators, 1 July 2014), global B2B buying reasonably is expected to approach $50 trillion in transactions (i.e., $10.7 trillion/.22).Third, because of the high dollar volume, number of stakeholders involved, and often complex, techni- cal nature of the offerings under consideration, the B2B pur- chasing process usually takes substantial time and may in- volve extensive bargaining and negotiations.However, environmental forces emanating from technological advances and globalization are affecting the nature of B2B buying and challenging the validity of these models, along with their un- derlying assumptions.Second, because more than one person is in- volved in the purchase decision process, purchasing managers rarely make a buying decision independent of the influence of other stakeholders, whether within the buying organization or external to it (e.g., consultants, supplier firms, other firms in the industry).In addition, B2B buying behaviors differ substantially from consumer buying behaviors, in several ways.2.3.4.

According to the most recently published U.S. Department of Commerce (2010; http://www.census.gov/econ/estats/2010,
assessed January 2015) statistics, business-to-business (B2B) transactions account for $10.7 trillion, or nearly 42 %, of total U.S. revenues. Because the United States accounts for roughly 22 % of the global economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ World_Development_Indicators, 1 July 2014), global B2B buying reasonably is expected to approach $50 trillion in transactions (i.e., $10.7 trillion/.22). Understanding these transactions—including the forces that drive them and how changes in the environment affect them—is essential to the organizations that participate in this enormous global marketplace.
In addition, B2B buying behaviors differ substantially from consumer buying behaviors, in several ways. First, B2B buy- ing entails satisfying derived demand. Organizations purchase products to meet the needs of their buyers. Impulse-buying is rare; clearly stated, objective criteria, such as meeting produc- tion needs and schedules at a minimum cost, usually drive the choice process. Second, because more than one person is in- volved in the purchase decision process, purchasing managers rarely make a buying decision independent of the influence of other stakeholders, whether within the buying organization or external to it (e.g., consultants, supplier firms, other firms in the industry). The group that makes the purchasing decision in turn is embedded in a network of individual and organization- al relationships. Third, because of the high dollar volume, number of stakeholders involved, and often complex, techni- cal nature of the offerings under consideration, the B2B pur- chasing process usually takes substantial time and may in- volve extensive bargaining and negotiations. The extended B2B purchasing process (which can take months or years) and its interactive nature (involving multiple members of both the buying and selling organizations) make it difficult to spec- ify the functional relationships between the marketing efforts of a supplier and the responses by a buyer. Fourth, because B2B buyers are more interested in satisfying their total need than in buying any specific product, the offering can be com- plex and include training, technical support, financing, deliv- ery terms, and so forth, such that neither the buyer nor the seller can easily determine which offer is best for the buyer.
In Table 1, we trace some major trends in B2B buying models, which reveal that many foundational models, devel- oped three or four decades ago, are static and focused on a North American or European institutional structure. However, environmental forces emanating from technological advances and globalization are affecting the nature of B2B buying and challenging the validity of these models, along with their un- derlying assumptions.
Accordingly, Wiersema’s [68] B2B agenda cites the need to focus on B2B buying as one of the three top domains of concern for B2B marketers.1 Through a Delphi-like process,
1 The other two domains are B2B innovation and B2B customer analytics.
the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM; www. isbm.org) has identified four aspects that are of great concern to practitioners and offer the potential for fruitful academic study:

The changing landscape of B2B buying
Increasing seller sophistication
The impact of technological changes
Increasing importance and growth of emerging markets
The ISBM hosted a mini-conference in Orlando, Florida, in February 2014, to bring together leading B2B scholars who could exchange ideas in each of these domains and develop a research agenda for B2B buying. What follows are perspec- tives on each of these four important domains. We provide some background, identify key issues, and propose an associ- ated research agenda for each case. We hope in turn that this article focuses attention on and leads to further research in these important domains.