DOES THE PERSONAL NATURE OF INDUSTRIAL BUYERS
MATTER? KEY FINDINGS OF AN INVESTIGATION IN
TECHNOLOGY-ORIENTED FIRMS
Volker Koch
Graz University of Technology, Kopernikusgasse 24/II, 8010 Graz, Austria
Bernd Markus Zunk
Graz University of Technology, Kopernikusgasse 24/II, 8010 Graz, Austria
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31410/limen.2018.645
4th International Scientific – Business Conference LIMEN 2018 – Leadership & Management: Integrated Politics of Research and Innovations, Belgrade – Serbia, December 13, 2018, CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS published by: Association of Economists and Managers of the Balkans, Belgrade, Serbia; Faculty of Engineering Management – Belgrade, Serbia; Modern Business School – Belgrade, Serbia; Faculty of Business and Management Sciences – Novo Mesto, Slovenia; Faculty of Business Management and Informatics – Novo Mesto, Slovenia; Business Academy Smilevski – BAS, Skopje, Macedonia; BAS Institute of Management, Bitola, Macedonia, ISBN 978-86-80194-15-8
Abstract
Globalization and rapidly changing manufacturing processes are constantly challenging
procurement departments in industrial firms in technology-oriented environments. As the
complexity of the purchased goods and services in technology-firms is high the procurement
departments play a key role when the overall operational efficiency and effectiveness has to be
improved. Hence, the field of activity of each individual buyer in procurement departments range
from e. g. building sustainable buyer-supplier relationships to awarding contracts to low-cost
suppliers. Especially for technology-oriented industrial firms with an above-average real net output
ratio which are acting in global markets the competitiveness depends strongly on their ability to
source raw material, technological goods as well as industrial services in order to build and
establish the best value-adding supply chains. Thus, the success is determined by the individual
performance of professional buyers within the organizational buying process who are typically
integrated in buying centers of procurement departments of industrial firms. Recent literature
indicates that the individual performance of industrial buyers in technology-oriented settings is
beside technical and methodical knowledge strongly influenced by their personal nature. For this
reason many personality researchers focus their interests on the structure and concepts of a
“professional nature”. Scholars agree on the fact that there are different factors specifying the
nature of a person that may serve as meaningful determinates for classifying characteristics of
personalities in professional environments. Consequently, more and more human resource
managers and executives in today’s industrial firms rely on employee personality analysis to
support the employee selection process and to optimize the resource allocation of the internal
workforce. In front of this background and in the context of the procurement function of technology
firms this contribution aims at reporting the key findings of personality characteristics of industrial
buyers. Based on an adapted model built from existing scales and conceptual works of the “Big
Five Inventory” a survey study was performed. The sample was drawn from the member data base
of the “Austrian Federation of Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics” on a cross
industry basis. Data analysis was done by means of confirmatory factor analysis. The presented
result – which is a small portion of a larg research project at Graz University of Technology –
indicate that a dominant key characteristic of the professional nature of industrial buyers in
technology-oriented environments is “conscientiousness”. This piece of research may contribute to
management literature in the field of human resources management by indicating that paying
particular attention to “conscientiousness” could help to hire the “right nature” of buyers in
industrial firms. The findings may also be useful in practice to design individual education and
training programmes for buyers in corporate purchasing departments.
procurement departments in industrial firms in technology-oriented environments. As the
complexity of the purchased goods and services in technology-firms is high the procurement
departments play a key role when the overall operational efficiency and effectiveness has to be
improved. Hence, the field of activity of each individual buyer in procurement departments range
from e. g. building sustainable buyer-supplier relationships to awarding contracts to low-cost
suppliers. Especially for technology-oriented industrial firms with an above-average real net output
ratio which are acting in global markets the competitiveness depends strongly on their ability to
source raw material, technological goods as well as industrial services in order to build and
establish the best value-adding supply chains. Thus, the success is determined by the individual
performance of professional buyers within the organizational buying process who are typically
integrated in buying centers of procurement departments of industrial firms. Recent literature
indicates that the individual performance of industrial buyers in technology-oriented settings is
beside technical and methodical knowledge strongly influenced by their personal nature. For this
reason many personality researchers focus their interests on the structure and concepts of a
“professional nature”. Scholars agree on the fact that there are different factors specifying the
nature of a person that may serve as meaningful determinates for classifying characteristics of
personalities in professional environments. Consequently, more and more human resource
managers and executives in today’s industrial firms rely on employee personality analysis to
support the employee selection process and to optimize the resource allocation of the internal
workforce. In front of this background and in the context of the procurement function of technology
firms this contribution aims at reporting the key findings of personality characteristics of industrial
buyers. Based on an adapted model built from existing scales and conceptual works of the “Big
Five Inventory” a survey study was performed. The sample was drawn from the member data base
of the “Austrian Federation of Materials Management, Purchasing and Logistics” on a cross
industry basis. Data analysis was done by means of confirmatory factor analysis. The presented
result – which is a small portion of a larg research project at Graz University of Technology –
indicate that a dominant key characteristic of the professional nature of industrial buyers in
technology-oriented environments is “conscientiousness”. This piece of research may contribute to
management literature in the field of human resources management by indicating that paying
particular attention to “conscientiousness” could help to hire the “right nature” of buyers in
industrial firms. The findings may also be useful in practice to design individual education and
training programmes for buyers in corporate purchasing departments.
Key words
Human Resource Management, Industrial Buyers, Technology-oriented Firms.
