Critique Analysis of the The Use of Bundling in B2B Online Reverse Auctions by Tobias Schoenherr and Vincent - Article Example

The given paper is a critique analysis in terms of research approach based on the article “The use of bundling in B2B online reverse auctions” by Tobias Schoenherr and Vincent A. Mabert. In short, the authors investigate the usage of bundling strategy in B2B sector with the help of academic sources and the conducted survey. Because of this, they claim to use both inductive and deductive logics while grounding their case study research on the bundle performance (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 84). Although, it is evident that the basis of the research is rather deduction than induction. In particular, the authors clearly follow Robson’s stages of testing theory: create a hypothesis, express it in operational terms, test it, discuss the results and provide the way to improve the theory (Saunders et al., 2008, p. 124-125). Moreover, the development of the argument starts from premises from the broader context in a deductive way (Gauch, 2003, p. 157). However, it also includes inductive elements in the way the authors investigate academic theories and concepts in the existing body of knowledge and come to the research questions and hypothesis. Thus, the presented analysis critically evaluates authors’ research topic within exploratory purpose of study and the combining approaches they used in the article. To start with, the authors determine the purpose of their research as to present “the first focused investigation of bundling for business-to-business (B2B) online reverse auctions” (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 82). In order to fulfill this task, the paper discusses performance determinants (item specification difficulty and items complexity), defines the relation with the supply base, and describes the information gained through the survey on bundling usage. Based on the classification given by Saunders et al. (2012), such a setting of research purpose indicates of exploratory research; among the key elements, this type of purpose creates “a search of the literature, interviewing ‘experts’ in the subject, [and] conducting focus group interviews” (p. 140). In the given analysis, Schoenherr and Mabert (2008) present the research related to the investigation of already existing findings and involving some experts in the process of sample creation. However, the usage of online survey does not let them to complete their exploratory research by the focus group conduct, even though they claimed to use them in measurement paragraph (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 87). Furthermore, the deductive logic is representative though the analysis of its five stages in the text of the article. As for the first stage, the authors draw from literature four main concepts (bindle complexity. item specification difficult, bundle performance, and supply base availability) and create hypotheses based on the six different connections between them (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 84-86). Firstly, the analyzed literature impelled Schoenherr and Mabert (2008) to draw a conclusion of individual items’ complexity and the resulting usage of bundles in reverse auctions in order to simplify the purchasing process (p. 84). Hence, they come with the hypothesized dependence of both lower availability in supply base and bundle performance on the difficult specification of individual items (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 85). Secondly, the authors pay attention to the sequences and combinations of individual items in attractive or non-attractive bid lots. In this context, they use homogeneity within the item group as the basis of high bundle performance and supply base availability (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 85). Finally, the authors assume that there is a direct relationship between the growth of supply base availability and the growth of bundle performance (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 86). On the stage of operationalization, Schoenherr and Mabert (2008) explain the development of measurement in the study. After the discussion on the theoretical background, they present deductive approach to forming the concepts. In their own words, they used “compilation and generation of sample items through the consultation of past literature, experience surveys, insight-stimulating examples, critical incidents and focus groups” (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 86). Concerning the collection of data, Schoenherr and Mabert (2008) present a detailed description of the scales through which they made measurements of these four concepts. Thus, it is reasonable to state that the authors used the concepts from the academic theories but conceptualized them rather through their own empirical research than from the literature. For instance, they measured bundle complexity through the survey of purchasing professionals, but with the help of two previous discoveries in which they were involved (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 86). While testing the hypotheses, the authors conducted online survey resulted in 252 complete and useable responses from the representatives of manufacturing companies. In deductive manner, the construction of it was based on the existing literature and institutions (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 87). In order to justify the results, they used chi-square test within the structural equation modeling (SEM) (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 88). As for qualitative type of data, reliability and validity is crucial (Gill and Johnson, 2010); hence, Schoenherr and Mabert (2008) provide the detailed descriptions of content, convergent, construct and discriminant validity, Cronbach’s alpha and unidimensionality, and provide the statistical identification in their analysis (p. 89-90). The stage of discussing the outcomes has a significant place in the research. In general, the path dependence indicator tests most authors’ results. Schoenherr and Mabert (2008) start by showing that item difficulty within a bid does not influence strongly bundle performance. In this part, the authors support this conclusion by the examples from the interviews they made (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 90-91). Although, too difficultly specified items reduce the number of suppliers that are ready to buy them (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 93). As for the strongest dependences, the revealed connection between high bindle complexity on both poor bundle performance and low supply base availability corresponds with the prior studies on this point (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 91). In this perspective, the authors support this claim with the logical assumption that “for highly complex items there are often only a few select specialty suppliers that are able and willing to provide the products” (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 91). Moreover, the greater supply base proved to be important for the bundle performance (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 92). In short, discussion stage shows that the most important hypotheses for authors were those linked to the bundle complexity. The final stage, or theory’s modification, means the practical limitations and the space for future studies in the article’s text. On the one hand, the revealed connections indicate of the necessity to prepare bundling carefully before the performance in terms of creating maximum similarity between the items (Schoenherr and Mubert, 2008, p. 92). However, the authors see the limits of their research in representative power provided by ISM sample and the basic flaws of online survey. On another hand, they propose to explore more deeply the other business sectors rather than manufacture, investigate supply base, take suppliers’ perspective, and use more analytics in the research (Schoenherr and Mubert, 2008, p. 94). Even though the bundle analysis mostly uses deduction, the authors also demonstrate inductive logic in the way they use academic findings and create a survey in building the theory. As Saunders et al. (2012) distinguish induction, it means that data determines the theory (p. 126). To the certain extent, it is visible in the literature review and survey discussion made by Schoenherr and Mabert. On the one hand, they determine the place of their research by claiming that bundling had received only superficial attention with no deep investigation of approaches and cases (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 81) and without proper acknowledgement of online bundling (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 82). Therefore, the authors used the available literature written on the different subjects, and applied it to create their own concepts. Moreover, they fulfill the requirements of inductive approach, as they indicated the empirical field where the theory will work and highlighted the “context in which such events were taking place” (Saunders et al., 2012, p. 126). In this case, Schoenherr and Mabert (2008) demonstrate it by determining the emphasis of previous studies on the business-to-consumer (B2C) environment only, providing empirical examples from B2B bundling in automobile market, translations, and home appliance, and starting with the wider context of request for quote (RFQ) process, where online bundling finds its essential place (p. 81-82). On another hand, the peculiarities of the survey fits inductive logic in the usage open-ended questions in unstructured questionnaire (Gill and Johnson, 2010, p. 124). In addition, appearance the several dimensions of validity mentioned by the authors (Schoenherr and Mabert, 2008, p. 89) corresponds with the inductive admitting of validity degrees (Gauch, 2003, p. 158). Thus, the inductive logic also appears in the paper. In order to sum up, it is evident that the authors used combining approaches in their exploratory research. As for the deduction, Schoenherr and Mabert (2008) represent all the five stages of it by creating several hypotheses, operationalizing and testing them, presenting some results and sketching the problem areas for future theory modification. However, the way they came to their hypotheses included inductive logic, since the authors used previous researches that do not discuss the subject of bundling on online reverse auction directly, represented the context of bundling practice, and chose only manufacture companies for their survey. Because of this, it is relevant to state that the research contributes to the existing body of knowledge, but the way it formulates research questions and hypotheses is rather empirical than linked to academic concepts and theories. References: Gauch, H., 2003. Scientific Method in Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gill, J. & Johnson, P., 2010. Research Methods for Managers. Fourth edition. London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi: SAGE Publications. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A., 2012. Research Methods for Business Students. Sixth edition. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall. Schoenherr, T. & Mabert, V., 2008. The use of bundling in B2B online reverse auctions. Journal of Operations Management, 26, pp. 81-95. Read More