[5] McDonald, Rogers and Woodburn (2000) state that identifying and influencing all the people involved in the buying decision is a prerequisite in the process of selling to an organization.
[4] The concept of a buying center (as a focus of business-to-business marketing, and as a core factor in creating customer value and influence in organisational efficiency and effectiveness) formulates the understanding of purchasing decision-making in complex environments.
One stream of research focuses on the number of decision phases and their timing and the other emphasizes the type of decision-making model (or choice routine) utilized.
Andrews and Rogers noted in 2005 that very little academic discussion had taken place regarding buyer behaviour within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
[16] Thompson and Panayiotopoulos suggest that some purchasing decisions in SMEs, especially in a rebuy context, are made by one person and therefore not really a "group" activity, although in a new-buy situation, "the influence of other people may be greater".