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Paper info: The Buying Network In International Project Business: A Reviewand Conceptual Model

Title


The Buying Network In International Project Business: A Reviewand Conceptual Model

Authors


Catherine Welch
University of New South Wales
Australia
Catherine Welch and Richard A. Owusu

Place of Publication


The paper was published at the 21st IMP-conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2005.

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Abstract


The objective of this paper is to develop a framework for analyzing the project buying network.We believe that such analysis will provide insightful research and managerial implications todeepen understanding of the structure and processes of project buying networks and theirimplications for project sellers. We review the relevant buying center and project businessliterature and develop an integrated framework. Our results show that while the buying centerliterature provides insightful and analytical constructs, it has not delved into the dynamics of multiorganizationalbuying networks and has left project buying and its international context relativelyuntouched. For its part, while project business research has conceptualized the buying andselling networks, there has been very little systematic research of the inter-organizational projectbuying process. Our framework takes into account the type of purchase and purchase situation;the structure, processes, and capabilities of the buying network; financing issues; as well as thenational and international environmental factors impinging on the multi-organizational buyingnetwork.