Buyer-seller uncertainty: a systematic review and future research directions

Abstract

Research on buyer-seller exchange consistently acknowledges the role of uncertainty as an influential factor in decision-making for both exchange parties. However, a fragmented understanding of uncertainty, limitations from data collection, and overreliance on a narrow set of theoretical frameworks has hampered the development of uncertainty as a core concept in sales research. To address these challenges and encourage future research, we conduct a systematic literature review to streamline and synthesize the disparate research on buyer-seller uncertainty. The review process reveals interesting trends in the prevalence of uncertainty research as well as overarching research themes. Discussion of these themes alongside managerial insights help illuminate multiple research gaps that offer fruitful areas for future sales research. The results of this analysis produce an encouraging discussion for sales scholars to reconsider their theoretical, methodological, and conceptual approaches to understand both buyer and seller uncertainty.

Keywords:

• Buyer uncertainty
• seller uncertainty
• systematic literature review
• transaction cost economics
• signaling theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/advanced-search

2 European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Product and Innovation Management, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, Journal of Service Research, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Consumer Behavior, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Marketing Channels, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Marketing Analytics, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Marketing Analytics, Marketing Theory, Psychology & Marketing, Harvard Business Review, Business Horizons.