Judgmental heuristics in overseas vendor search and evaluation: A proposed model of importer buying behavior

Abstract

This article identifies the implicit importer buying behavior model that is suggested by import decision studies and reviews contextual factors that distinguish international sourcing from its domestic counterpart. W e then discuss the major shortcomings of the implicit model, namely, the failure to take into account the cognitive processes that influence vendor search and evaluation patterns. Drawing on the cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence literatures, this paper proposes an alternative model of importer buying behavior that explicitly accounts for the use of cognitive heuristics and presents a series of testable research propositions. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

Social Factors Influencing Export Initiation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

“…Although knowledge of opportunities abroad has been assumed to be the critical antecedent in previous research investigating export stimuli (Lee and Brasch 1978;Reid 1984;Welch and Wiedersheim-Paul 1980), it does not necessarily follow that it will be the potential exporter that first learns of the foreign opportunity. International trade is an exchange process that begins with the exchange of information regarding the matching of a product with a perceived market need (Liang and Parkhe 1997;Toyne 1989). Often the connection between a local market need and a foreign-sourced product is established by an outside party (Leonidou 1995;Saimee, Walters, and Dubois 1993).…”

Setting the Theoretical Foundations of Importing Research: Past Evaluation and Future Perspectives

“…Bounded-rationality theory can be used to highlight the information and research aspects of importing (Liang and Parkhe 1997; Liang and Stump 1996). According to this theory, decisions are delineated by bounded rationality because decision makers—at both individual and organizational levels—have limited knowledge and computational ability, which leads firms to satisfice rather than maximize their goals (Simon 1955).…”

“…Another line of research could include the role of human and technological resources available for import-sourcing tasks, as well as the importance of judgmental heuristics in import decision making. Sequential search, social embeddedness in networks, and mimetic behavior in importing could also be examined from this theoretical angle (Liang and Parkhe 1997; Liang and Stump 1996).…”

Marketing to Public- and Private-Sector Companies in Emerging Countries: A Study of Indian Purchasing Managers

“…Private-sector organizations, free from binding external rules and regulations regarding vendor evaluation and selection, often skip rigorous open-bidding procedures in favor of chance encounters (Liang and Stump 1996). Private-sector managers have monetary and nonmonetary incentives to foster profit-maximizing behavior (Ramaswamy, Renforth, and Ramaswamy 1995).…”

“…Private-sector organizations, driven by efficiency considerations, scour more information on the capabilities of suppliers by both personal interaction and collection of extraneous data (Liang and Stump 1996). Muller (1991) finds that a greater percentage of purchasing managers in private-sector organizations performed the tasks of evaluating and analyzing suppliers than those in pubic-sector organizations.…”