Achieving accuracy, generalization-to-contexts, and complexity in theories of business-to-business decision processes

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Business-to-business relationship Case study research Ethnographic decision tree model Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis Degrees-of-freedom analysis This article describes field research methods that provide advances in developing accurate theories of business-to-business (B2B) decision processes. The article supports and extends prior work by Woodside (2010) that bridging qualitative and quantitative research method is possible to achieve accuracy, complexity, and generality across cases in B2B decision processes. As an aid in doing so, the article argues for the study of a few (n = 5 to 50) cases via case study research (CSR). The article defines CSR, and describes several CSR theories and methods that are useful for describing, explaining, and forecasting processes occurring in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. The discussion includes summaries of six B2B case studies spanning more than 60 years of research. This article advocates embracing the view that isomorphic theory of realities of B2B processes is possible via advances in CSR methods. The discussion advocates rejecting the dominant logic of attempting to describe and explain B2B processes by arms-length fixed-point surveys that usually involve responses from one executive per firm with no data-matching of firms in specific B2B relationships—such surveys lack details and accuracy necessary for understanding, describing, and forecasting B2B processes. This article points out how researchers of business-to-business (B2B) decisions can strengthen both the theoretical and the analytical basis of their research by broadening their range of research tools to include advances in case study research (CSR). As Hult (2011) points out, marketing researchers, including business-to-business (B2B) researchers, use an eclectic mix of theoretical bases for the understanding of phenomena. These theories include general-level theories of marketing, such as Hult's proposal of a marketing organization theory (MOT) and the Vargo and Lusch service-dominant logic (2004) proposal; general theories from other disciplines such as the work of economist Penrose (1959); and mid-level bridging theories such as the contemporary marketing practices (Brodie, Saren, & Pels, 2011). Because B2B decision researchers are likely to continue to use a broad range of theoretical bases they will need a broader range of epistemologies and methodologies in future in order to investigate marketing phenomena in full depth using these theories (Nicholson, Lindgreen, & Kitchen, 2009). The application of Giddens (1979) structuration theory is an example. Researchers apply structuration concepts to marketing problems (Vallaster & de Chernatony, 2006). Nicholson et al. (2009) propose …