3rd Business & Management Conference, Lisbon

THE ROLE OF INFORMATION/KNOWLEDGE FLOW IN THE CLIENTS’ PURCHASING DECISIONS

PAULA BAJDOR, TOMASZ LIS, ALEKSANDRA PTAK

Abstract:

In the current reality and the conditions under which companies conduct its activity, the role of information/knowledge is gaining in importance. The Internet’s popularization had a big influence on this increasing, as Internet allows not only for information providing but also its generation. Looking further, it has also contributed to the increasing meaning of knowledge, based on a large amount of information perceived by the receivers. In the case of information that was already presented in the traditional supply chain, as one of the subjects of flows - next to products and financial resources, but its role was confined mainly to the improvement of the entire supply chain. Now, information flows that takes place between the company and its client are very important, these flows play a large role in making purchase decisions taken by clients. Because of this decision, whether to buy the product or not, the further development of the company may depend on. Therefore, the main purpose of this article was to verify whether for the clients, information about the products are important and if they play an important role in making purchase decisions. The authors focused on how clients obtain and share information/knowledge about the products offered by the company, and also examined whether for the client the efficient flow of information is important, and whether in their opinion, the company try to improve their information flows directed to its clients.

Keywords: information flow, knowledge, purchasing decision, client, company