Business to Business - Buying Behavior

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,3, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, language: English, abstract: Selling and buying behavior in business to business markets has rapidly changed over the past decades as markets become more competitive, technology evolves fast and customer expectations have changed. Thus, the focus changed from the buyer or seller to being the sole individual responsible for handling business relationships. Nowadays, everybody in a company who can provide an input to the process is actively involved as the boundaries of different horizontal and vertical levels are fading which used to determine the scope of responsibility in the past. Therefore, the general terms of 'Buying Center' and 'Selling Center' have become important as they define the people being involved in a purchase. The aim of this dissertation is to provide an overview of the significant determinants of a buying and a selling center, the roles the individuals play in a purchase and the influences on buying and selling behavior on different levels. Additionally, the buying and selling process and the collaboration of the respective centers in the process are being considered. The first chapter focuses on the major changes of selling and buying in the past decades. Chapter three provides the general definitions of B2B markets, the goods being purchased and th...