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Stochastic modelling and industrial networks—complementary views of organisational buyer behavior

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Abstract

This paper investigates the common ground between two apparently contrasting approaches to the understanding of organizational purchasing behavior; stochastic modelling and the IMP (or “markets as networks”) approach. These two schools of inquiry have travelled along parallel tracks for many years but there has never been a systematic attempt to analyse the ontological, epistemological and methodological similarities between them. We present a coherent theoretical framework to investigate the common ground between stochastic modelling and IMP and demonstrate that the two approaches offer complementary insights that can and should be exploited in the context of research into organizational purchasing behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Jim McCabe

  2. Bangor Business School, Bangor University, Bangor, LL57 2DG, UK

    Philip Stern

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  1. Jim McCabe
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Correspondence to Jim McCabe.

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McCabe, J., Stern, P. Stochastic modelling and industrial networks—complementary views of organisational buyer behavior. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 37, 204–214 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-008-0088-y

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