The effect of foreign environmental factors on industrial buyers' willingness to buy foreign products

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to discover whether the attitudes of industrial buyers (measured in terms of worldmindedness) toward foreign countries influence their decisions to buy products from these countries. In addition, an examination was made of the influence of foreign political, cultural and economic variables on their willingness to buy foreign products. Forty-four foreign countries in various culture realms were categorized into different levels of political freedom and stages of economic development in order to accomplish these objectives. Fifteen null hypotheses were developed and tested. Factorial designs were developed based upon the characteristics of the independent variables and these were tested using analysis of variance. Duncan's multiple range tests were used to compare individual treatment means. A national sample of purchasing managers, based upon the membership list of the National Association of Purchasing Managers, was surveyed by means of a self-administered questionnaire. Of the 1,090 purchasing managers contacted, 400 returned questionnaires, of which 376 were usable. ...