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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how the intermediation of an online agent in the relationship between prospective clients and professional service providers affects individual purchasing processes and decisions, and satisfaction with the professional service provider once the commercial transaction is concluded.

Drawing on the integrated trust-technology acceptance model, modified to include two additional variables to take into account of the specificities of the context investigated – users’ perceived reduction of information asymmetry and satisfaction with the professional service provider – a research framework is developed and tested with a research design combining a decision tree procedure with structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. Participants are 188 users of an Italian website which incorporates an online agent that refers notaries to prospective clients.

Decisions to purchase professional services brokered by online agents depend upon trust in the agent, and users’ perceptions of the agent’s ability to reduce information asymmetry, as well as its perceived usefulness. Online agents for professional services can be effective as well as efficient: users who bought the service from an agent-referred notary had higher levels of satisfaction with their professional service provider than users who purchased the service from a different notary.

This is the first empirical effort to investigate the effects of online agents in the specific context of professional service purchasing. The uniqueness of the research context permitted identification of a new type of online agent, the “double-sided online referral agent”.

End users are often involved in organizational buying, but very little is known about the role that they play and how they influence purchasing decisions. This study aims to explore the factors behind end users’ attempts to influence purchasing and the strategies they use.

The research draws on the concept of purchasing task involvement, which describes the feelings of personal relevance that a buying center member has for a specific organizational purchasing decision. This concept is used to gain a deeper understanding of users’ influence in organizational purchasing and link it to sources of power and the corresponding influence strategies. The study is based on 90 in-depth interviews with buyers, drivers and sellers of heavy trucks.

End users’ purchasing task involvement is only marginally determined by the product’s performance or technical features. Purchasing task involvement leads to influence when there are specific power relationships between the buyer and the user and under specific circumstances.

This is the first study that links end users’ purchasing task involvement, power and influence strategies in organizational buying.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cross-effects of on-site sponsorship on online sponsorship effectiveness in communities. The research evaluates how members’ commitment to a sports-oriented community and attitude to brands providing sponsorship developed through sponsorship on-site, and sponsor-community fit, influence the effectiveness of online sponsorship measured as the intention to purchase the same brands online through sponsoring banners displayed on the community web site.

Data were collected through a web-survey from a self-selected sample of 272 respondents belonging to non-professional sports communities. By drawing on the principal tenets of the theory of reasoned action, the authors developed a theoretical framework and tested it through a structural equation model to evaluate the role of attitude to sponsor brands developed through sponsorship on-site, and its antecedents, on the intention to purchase the same brands online through sponsoring banners exposed on the community web site.

The attitude to sponsor brands developed through sponsorship on-site affects the intention to make online purchases of the same brands through sponsoring banners exposed on the web sites of non-professional communities. On the other hand, antecedents of sponsorship on-site, that is, sponsor-community fit and commitment to the community, affect the intention to purchase the same brands online through sponsor banners displayed on the community web site, with attitude playing a different mediating role.

The research contributes to sponsorship literature by establishing the existence of cross-effects of on-site sponsorship on online sponsorship effectiveness and providing insights into the central role of commitment and attitude developed on-site. Managerially, non-professional communities emerge as attractive targets for multiple sponsorship investment owing to their on-site and online social interaction that offers managers an opportunity to exploit sponsorship cross-effects.

The study contributes to the scant body of knowledge on the cross-effects of on-site sponsorship on online sponsorship and provides insights into the importance of communities as a beneficial target of sponsorship investment.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

End users have traditionally been excluded from decision-making within organizational buying processes. Yet they are the ones who use the products purchased, so their involvement is now being seen as crucial to gaining competitive advantage.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.