A Conceptual Model for Understanding Associations' Site Selection Processes: An Organizational Buyer Behavior Perspective

ABSTRACT

Despite the importance of understanding the site selection process in the meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) industry, there is a paucity of research in this important area. The majority of scholarly authors have focused their research work on the criteria considered significant by buyers prior to choosing a particular site rather than the decision-making process. Hence, the current article aims to develop a model of the site selection process for associations from the perspective of organizational buyer behavior (OBB) in an attempt to fill such a gap in MICE research. In establishing this model, a number of contributions that arise from the three pioneering OBB models of Robinson, Faris, and Wind (1967), Sheth (1973), and Webster and Wind (1972), along with Crouch and Ritchie's (1998) model of the site selection process, were considered. The proposed model could help meeting sites design competitive marketing strategies and develop an adequate database about the association market, the issue that could lead to their satisfaction and improve customer service.

KEYWORDS:

• MICE
• site selection process
• organizational buyer behavior