How Do Organizational Buyers Use Customer-To-Customer Information Sharing in Complex Buying?

Business focus is shifting away from tangibles towards intangibles such as skills and knowledge which makes buying difficult by complicating buyers’ information search. This paper analyzes how organizational buyers use customer-to-customer (C2C) information gained through e.g. word-of-mouth and references in complex buying. By drawing on extensive qualitative interview research among 46 buyers of knowledge-intensive services, we develop a model that present how buyers use C2C information throughout the process of complex buying, e.g. to formulate their actual needs and evaluate suppliers’ capabilities to generate value. This paper contributes to b-to-b and industrial marketing literature. Insights from this research are broadly applicable to the contexts of knowledge intensive, innovation and solutions business.