Threat Strategy within Organizations: An Empirical Study on Purchasing Decision-Making

Threat is one special type of communication whereby one conveys opinion, knowledge, or attitude to another with an intention to influence and modify the latter's opinion or behavior. This research aims at identifying the antecedents and the effectiveness of threats applied in the process of purchasing decision-making. The research model integrates constructs derived from the literature of diverse discipline. The framework suggested explains the relative effects of threats, is tested empirically to verify the impacts on the influenced target's opinions and behaviors in buying centers. Data are collected from CAPM's members in Taiwan, and 208 respondents served as targets in the interpersonal relationships. LISREL findings indicate that threats are effective in winning a target's compliance. Additionally, influencing source's characteristics affect the choice of threats more strongly than target characteristics do. The relative ability of dependence on the source to cause manifest influence is even more significant than that of threats. Overall, the results of this study appear consistent with behavioral theories and research.