Teleological sales and purchase approaches in complex business relationships – customers’ expectations before and perceptions after purchase

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the actions and interactions that take place before and after purchase between a service provider (service seller) and its customers (service buyers) in complex business relationships. Specifically, it is to examine customers’ expectations of the service provider’s service offer before purchase and the same customers’ perceptions of the service solution offered after purchase in a business-to-business (B2B) context. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a mixed methods design, which combined data generated through in-depth interviews (both with service buyers and key informants from the service company), an online customer survey, analysis of textual documents and structured observations of buyer–seller interactions and actions. Both objective and subjective points of view at different stages of the investigation were collected. Findings The authors’ results show that, contrary to previous evidence in B2C service research, the customers’ perceptions of the service performance were not significantly related to their previous expectations. In this context, characterized by dynamic and constantly evolving processes and many parties (both from the buyer and the seller company) involved in the implementation process, service complexity may cause a lack of well-formed expectations regarding how the service will perform and its relevant performance attributes. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that the service models traditionally used to describe and explain customer service expectations and perceptions in relatively simple service contexts with final consumers are difficult to apply in B2B complex business relationships. Rather, scholars need to take a holistic, continuously evolving and adapted perspective when examining the formation of customer service expectations and their perceptions in B2B complex services. Practical implications There should be a teleological balance between sales and purchase approaches in B2B contexts to optimize the outcome of complex business relationships between service providers and service receivers. The authors suggest several recommendations to service providers to ensure that their salespeople do not create unrealistic and unachievable expectations in the minds of the service receivers. Service providers are also encouraged to develop formal cross functional teams (e.g. consisting of salespeople, service technicians and service support) based on mutual understanding and information sharing. Originality/value This study provides an alternative time-oriented understanding of the way customer expectations before purchase and their perceptions after purchasing a complex software solution in industrial markets formed through the lens of teleological framework. As such, this is the first empirical inquiry with this specific framework in B2B contexts making a relevant contribution to literature.

E-Commerce Ethics into Expectation-Confirmation Model: Emerging Case of Pakistan’s B2B SMEs

“…Moreover, ethical theories i.e. ( ethical egoism , utilitarianism ,deontology theory, the ethics of care theory, rights theory )in the concept of e-commerce ethics also established the conclusion that buyers and sellers' perception regarding ethical practices issues and ethical approaches is also positively affected on all the components of ECT (Rodríguez et al, 2018).Additionally, business ethics theories based on utilitarian views of consequences based on human actions also ground ethical elements of this research. Business ethics work on honesty, integrity, justice fairness and value privacy, security and non-deceptive services for buyers in ecommerce.…”

Time orientation in complex B2B service relationships

“…This framework has been used by Padin et al (2015) and Svensson and Padin (2017), but with respect to simple (airline) service B2C-relationships. It has also recently been used by Rodriguez et al (2018) in complex business relationships.…”

“…In addition, the following implementation processes of an advanced software solution as explored in this study includes many time-oriented actions of people between the SP team and the SR team, based on teleological approaches. Formative actions are pre-determined and directed toward a known and predictable state or condition (see also Rodriguez et al, 2018 and Table I for further details). A formative B2B service relationship refers to pre-determined and past-based actions, on which the SR has some experience of the same or similar situations with any SP.…”

“…The past, the present and future of sales and purchase cycles are not only sequentially interconnected (passive), but are also interchangeably connected (active) to determine the actions undertaken (Charon, 2007). For example, actions undertaken in complex B2B service relationships may be guided by past experiences to determine actions in the present, or they may be guided by continuous experiences in the present, so as to determine forthcoming actions, as well as future expectations which may guide the actions in the present (Rodriguez et al, 2018). On one hand, SP and SR focus on the present in the passive consideration of time, in SR requirements.…”

A mathematical model to adopt B2C ecommerce based on special customer requirement in social values with an emphasis on Islamic beliefs

“…However, in e-commerce, due to the high range of customers and vendors and the use of the internet for the transaction, the mechanism governing e-commerce can respond to requests and requirements whenever and wherever a buyer or a seller requires something. In the Islamic marketing, however, the time needed for the seller and buyer to form the transaction is the beginning of the deal, but trading is not feasible until the rules of Halal and Haram are specified (Turban et al , 2016; Rodriguez et al , 2018; Koay, 2018).…”