Investigating the buying process for the introduction of data processing in small and medium-sized firms

Analysing the buying process and the post-purchase experiences may be of interest to both the supplier and potential buyers. The buying behaviour during the introduction of data processing and computer-assisted information processing in 69 small and medium-sized firms were investigated using a standardized questionnaire. For all firms, the decision to buy involved a decision to obtain a system, with unity of hardware, system software, and application software — thus software support had the major influence on the decision. The assumption that in producer markets buyers decide more rationally and with greater market transparency only holds true for so called “intensive decision-makers”. This subset is the result of a cluster analysis that groups the firms according to their decision-making behaviour. A comparison of the “intensive decision-makers” with all others on their post-purchase development of computer-assisted information processing presents the following finding: Over an equal time span, the “intensive decision-makers” achieved a higher level of information processing (as measured by the number of DP-applications installed, the possibility of on-line operation of the firms' departments, and the creation of integrated solutions) than the rest of the sample.