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This work deals particularly with the analysis of the buying company in the context of the purchasing process in industrial markets. Additionally, the study addresses the question of whether and how companies conduct these analyses on a practical level.
The first section explains the specific characteristics of the industrial goods markets and depicts the influences on the buying- and selling center.
The second section includes the buying types which strongly influence the size and the composition of the buying center.
The third section deals with the buying center and the buying process as well as the buying center models from the literature. These models are verified in terms of their practical application at the end of the study based on expert surveys.
In section four, the sales process as well as the members of the selling company are discussed. Section five represents the most important criteria for a buying center analysis and shows the possibility of a practical implementation by using an example.
The last section finally links the previous theoretical fields and displays the results of the qualitative expert interviews.

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Markus Gaggl was born in 1987 in Linz / Austria. After an apprenticeship with one of the leading industrial companies of Austria, he finished the extra occupational higher technical school with the main focus on Mechanical Engineering and Construction at the Technical College Steyr. Afterwards, the author attended a bachelor degree programme with the main focus on international Marketing and Sales Management at the University of Applied Sciences Campus02 in Graz. At the moment, the author is in the final phase of his study which he will complete in June 2014 with the academic degree B.A. (Bachelor of Arts in Business).
Already during his study, the author collected comprehensive practical experiences in the industrial goods sector, in particular in the steel-producing and steel-processing industry. Fascinated by the exchange-process between companies and customers, the author decided to carry out a scientific investigation in this area. The investigation was published in form of the present scientific book.

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