Reducing buyer decision-making uncertainty in organizational purchasing: can supplier trust, commitment, and dependence help?

Given its negative effects on purchase behaviors, organizational buyers' decision-making uncertainty (DMU) needs to be reduced. The marketing literature still lacks insights on how business marketers can help reduce organizational buyers' DMU, especially through relationship-building approaches. We developed a conceptual model on whether the organizational buyer's DMU can be reduced by the buyer's perceptions of supplier trust, supplier commitment, and supplier dependence. Based on data collected from a national sample, our study confirms the significant negative effect of buyers' trust in the supplier on their uncertainty in purchase decisions. Buyers' trust can be enhanced if buyers perceive suppliers to be trusting of the buyers and if buyers perceive the suppliers to be highly committed to the relationship. Buyers' perception of the supplier's dependence does not significantly increase buyers' trust, but it does have a direct effect on DMU.