Internal and external price search in industrial buying: The moderating role of customer satisfaction

Despite price's great relevance in organizational buying decisions, prior research primarily studies price search in business-to-consumer environments. This research conceptualizes both internal and external price search in a business-to-business setting and focuses on how price importance affects these two types as well as how customer satisfaction moderates the relationships. Results show that purchasing managers' satisfaction associates positively with the effect of price importance on internal price search. Also, their satisfaction negatively associates with the effect of price importance on external price search. Price search reduces the price premium paid by customers (especially external price search).