UNDERSTANDING THE PERSUASION PROCESS BETWEEN INDUSTRIAL BUYERS AND SELLERS

Research on industrial layer behavior and sales management has assumed that a persuasion or influence process occurs when industrial buyers and sellers interact. However, no concrete research effort has been made to explain this persuasion process or the resultant behavior. Given the recent emphasis on supply chain integration, self-managed work teams, and the shift from adversarial to cooperative buyer-supplier relationships, it is critical to fully understand how this persuasion process occurs and how it may change based on new organizational initiatives. This paper uses the elaboration likelihood model to explain the industrial buyer-seller persuasion process.