| Most industrial buyers are constrained by the need to make effective and efficient business purchasing decisions which will meet their organizational goals. After the formation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), this decision choice became more complex as Mexico is becoming a primary target of exporters/suppliers from NAFTA member nations and other developed countries around the world. The purpose of the study was to assess the perceptions of Mexican industrial buyers towards the suppliers and products from the U.S., Canada, and other developed nations. The framework of this study was based on the cue utilization method/process (Olson 1973, 1977) whereby the effects of eleven cues/variables (customer orientation, reputation, negotiation style, cultural awareness, personal communication, good technical training with the product, price, product quality, product information, well design of a product, and service and delivery) were tested on the product perceptions of Mexican industrial buyers.;Further analysis showed that with respect to the U.S., "customer orientation," "cultural awareness," and "personal communication" were the top three variables/cues utilized in product evaluation by the Mexican industrial buyers. With respect to Canada, "customer orientation," "reputation" and "cultural awareness" were the top three variables/cues utilized in product evaluation. Finally, with respect to Other developed nations, "competitive price," "reputation," and "cultural awareness" were found to be the top three variables utilized in product evaluation.;It is recommended that future research of this nature be conducted with a larger sample set from a more diverse range of sectors of the Mexican economy. This may not only add to the validity of the study, but also enhance the scope of the study as well.;Six hundred questionnaires were sent by mail to purchase managers in Mexico in five sectors of the economy (machinery, electric tools, chemicals, auto parts and building materials) and one hundred five questionnaires were correctly filled and evaluated in this research study. It was hypothesized that each cue/variable would have a significant positive relationship to the product perception. Through the use of descriptive statistics and regression analysis, it was found that all of the variables except "reputation" did have a significant positive relationship to the product perception of Mexican industrial buyers. It was found that the extrinsic variables (customer orientation, reputation, negotiation style, cultural awareness, personal communication) were more closely related to product perception that the intrinsic variables (product quality, product information, price, technical training, well designed product, service and delivery). It was also found that the overall mean scores of the variables were highest with respect to the U.S., followed by other developed nations and then Canada. |
