Correlates of Interpersonal Purchase Influence in Organizations

A concept of interpersonal purchase influence is defined in the context of an organizational buying situation. Selected social and organizational bases of influence from a personal source are hypothesized to explain changes in a decisionmaker's product evaluations. Characteristics of the decision-maker are hypothesized to mediate the source's effects. Results from a field experiment partially supported a model and hypotheses derived from role theory. It was found that the number as well as the type of influence bases in a source are relevant in explaining interpersonal purchase influence.