Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 1151 1159

Ongoing search among industrial buyers

Stefania Borghini a,b,, Francesca Golfetto a,b , Diego Rinallo a
a
b

Business Management Department, Universit Bocconi, Via Filippetti 9, 20122 Milan, Italy
SDA Bocconi School of Management, Area Marketing, via Bocconi 8, 20136 Milano, Italy

Received 1 December 2005; received in revised form 1 June 2006; accepted 30 August 2006

Abstract
Literature on organizational buying behavior pays little attention to ongoing search, i.e., information search activities that are independent of
specific purchase decisions. This study employs ethnographic methods to investigate the nature of ongoing search in the context of trade shows. The
study contributes to the literature on information search among industrial buyers by highlighting its bias in favor of search processes that lead to shortterm purchases. The research findings have strong implications for trade show scholarship, as they cast a critical light on the received view on how
to effectively select, manage and measure returns on trade show investments. This article offers a more complex and nuanced view of visitor behavior
at trade shows and introduces a broader perspective on the significance of these events for their underlying markets.
2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Ongoing search; Trade shows; Visitors behavior; Rituals; Ethnography

1. Introduction
Companies need to know the relative importance their customers assign to information sources in order to optimize the
allocation of the usually limited resources available for
promotion. Previous literature has investigated buyers' perceptions of the importance of different communication tools (e.g.,
Turnbull, 1974; Parasuraman, 1981; Deeter-Schmelz and
Kennedy, 2002), but these studies focus on pre-purchase or
purchase situations (in other words, information gathering for a
specific purchase problem). In contrast with studies of consumer
behavior, literature on organizational buying behavior (Webster
and Wind, 1972; Sheth, 1973; Bunn, 1993) pays little attention
to ongoing search, i.e., search activities that are independent of
buying decisions (Bloch et al., 1986). Only literature regarding
trade shows which represent some of the most important
influential sources of information among industrial buyers
provides evidence of this phenomenon: visitors often attend
trade shows for reasons unrelated (or, at best, only weakly
Corresponding author. Business Management Department, Universit
Bocconi, Via Filippetti 9, 20122 Milan, Italy.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Borghini),
[email protected] (F. Golfetto), [email protected]
(D. Rinallo).
0148-2963/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.06.005

related) to purchase decisions (e.g., Bello, 1992; Bello and

Lohtia, 1993; Godar and O'Connor, 2001).
The phenomenon of ongoing search among industrial buyers
poses interesting challenges to the way companies traditionally
manage their trade show participations or measure returns on
trade show investments. What if the booth personnel does not
dedicate sufficient attention to curious visitors who are not
interested in an immediate purchase? What if a company stops
exhibiting at a trade show where most visitors are already customers? Academic literature suggests concentrating effort on
members of buying centers (Bello and Lohtia, 1993) and measuring returns on investments based on the number of attendees
from target audiences who actually make purchases following
their visit (Gopalakrishna and Lilien, 1995; Smith et al., 2004).
Yet, visitors engaged in an on-going search are not curious,
and focusing on short-term returns could be considered myopic.
This paper contributes to the literature on the buyer search
process by investigating the behavior of industrial buyers as
they look for relevant information in the context of trade shows.
Methodologically, this study differs from conventional approaches in business-to-business marketing since it is based on
the use of ethnographic methods, which are increasingly
common in consumer marketing and research. The research
findings illuminate the nature of ongoing search and provide
managerial implications that cast a critical light on the received

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S. Borghini et al. / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 11511159

view on how to effectively select, manage and measure returns

on trade shows.
2. Literature review
Studies of information search by industrial buyers build on a
consolidated tradition in the literature that dates back to the
pioneering work of the 1960s and 1970s. Taken together, extant
research (for a review, see Moriarty and Spekman, 1984;
Lichtental et al., 1997) provides practitioners with a rich
understanding of how to define a company's promotional mix,
as communication instruments and message contents can be
modulated according to buyers' information needs (Turnbull,
1974; Bello, 1992; Godar and O'Connor, 2001). Subsequent
literature investigates factors influencing the use of specific
information sources during the purchasing process, highlighting
for example the relevance of product typology (Jackson et al.,
1987), buyer's stage in the purchasing process (Moriarty and
Spekman, 1984; Brossard, 1998) and characteristics of the
purchasing situation (Bunn, 1993). Other studies draw attention
to the role of personal as opposed to impersonal sources (e.g.,
Parasuraman and Zeithaml, 1983; Wheiler, 1987), the rationale
for adapting the promotional mix to the different members of
the buying center (e.g., Bello, 1992; Godar and O'Connor,
2001) and the impact of the Internet revolution on industrial
purchase decisions (e.g., Deeter-Schmelz and Kennedy, 2002).
Despite their relevance for the theoretical understanding of
industrial buyer behavior, most of these studies focus only on
pre-purchase or purchase situations (Webster and Wind, 1972;
Sheth, 1973; Bunn, 1993) and fail to analyze the ongoing information search process which occurs irrespective of whether a
purchase decision is being taken (Bloch et al., 1986). Literature
on trade shows which are considered one of the most important
means industrial buyers use to collect information (Parasuraman, 1981; Godar and O'Connor, 2001) has, on the other hand
identified numerous reasons for attendance not directly correlated with purchasing processes.
Current buyers may look for information after a purchase to
reduce cognitive dissonance rather than to find new products or
suppliers (Godar and O'Connor, 2001). Industrial buyers may
learn about the range of available products/services to gain new
ideas for future use (e.g., Dudley, 1990; Munuera and Ruiz,
1999). Influencers of a buying center may gather information to
preserve their credibility within their organizations (Krapfel,
1985). Moreover, non-buyers may be interested in gathering
information about industry or technological evolutions (e.g.,
Morris, 1988; Dudley, 1990; Rosson and Seringhaus, 1995;
Godar and O'Connor, 2001). From a relational point of view,
visitors and exhibitors use trade shows to develop and work on
existing business relationships (Blythe, 2002). In addition, all
visitors presumably attend trade shows to establish and maintain
relationships (e.g., Hansen, 1996; Godar and O'Connor, 2001)
and to reduce the social as well as the technological distance from
sellers (Ford, 1980).
While industrial marketing scholarship provides indirect
evidence about the existence of ongoing search processes among
industrial buyers, not much is known about the determinants,

motives, practice, and outcomes of these processes. This is a gap

that should be overcome in order to help suppliers avoid the risk
of adopting short-sighted communication strategies and reducing the effectiveness of trade shows and other marketing
communication instruments as vehicles for networking and
relationship building.
3. Method
The goal of the present study is to investigate visitor behavior
at trade shows in order to theorize about the nature of ongoing
search processes in industrial markets. As the information search
processes of industrial buyers at trade shows usually depicted
as cognitive activities manifest themselves in physical
behaviors that can be observed and whose meaning can be
elicited as they occur, this study relies on ethnographic methods
(Arnould and Wallendorf, 1994). Together with other interpretive research methods, ethnography is increasingly diffused in
mainstream marketing and consumer research. In these disciplines, scholars have challenged the bias of the dominant
paradigm in favor of quantitative methods by questioning the
most common misunderstanding associated to qualitative
research, i.e. the study of particular contexts as ends in
themselves, the lack of managerial implications and the refusal
to use quantitative measures (Arnould and Thompson, 2005). In
the field of business-to-business marketing, ethnographic
approaches are still unconventional, but scholars have recently
advocated the use of interpretive methods to make sense of
industrial markets (Cova and Salle, 2003; Gummesson, 2003)
and discover new phenomena that more conventional
approaches would fail to recognize. Moreover, as studies of
consumer trade fairs are available in previous literature
(Pealoza, 2000, 2001), the research benefited from the presence
in the literature of rigorous methodological benchmarks that
improved the quality of the research design.
The empirical field consisted of eleven European trade shows
dedicated to different phases of the textileapparel (yarns,
fabrics, textile technology; accessories, apparel) and wood
furniture (semifinished products and accessories; wood-working
technology; furniture) industries, held between May 2002 and
February 2005, that in some cases the researchers visited for two
consecutive editions (see Table 1). As common in ethnographic
approaches, multiple methods and techniques were used to collect
and analyze data (e.g., Arnould and Wallendorf, 1994; Sherry,
1995). Besides the field activities, quantitative data were collected
from the archives of the leading Italian trade show organizer, who
provided the results of visitor surveys regarding events held in
Milan in 2003 and 2004. The research findings thus result from
the combination of two data sets: a qualitative one that includes
the interview transcriptions, field notes, photographs and videos
most often associated to ethnographic research, and a quantitative
one that was analyzed to provide support to the ideas and insights
generated during the fieldwork.
The research team for the fieldwork consisted of 6 researchers
who conducted extensive participant observation for the entire
duration of each trade show (from 1 to 34 days). This included
the realization of pictures, videos and field notes on various

S. Borghini et al. / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 11511159

1153

Table 1
The trade shows investigateda
Trade show

Location and dates

N. and typology of exhibitors

N. professional visitors

Pitti Filati

Florence (I)
46 Feb 2004
Milan (I)
911 Feb 2004
810 Sep 2004
Florence (I)
811 Jan 2004
1215 Jan 2005
Milan (I)
27 Feb1 Mar 2004
2427 Feb 2005
Milan (I)
27 Feb 1 Mar 2004
2427 Feb 2005
Milan (I),
2427 Feb 2005

104 (12.5% foreign)

Yarn and fabric producers
398 (22.6% foreign)
Fabrics, embroideries, and fashion
accessories producers
793 (35.6% foreign)
Men's wear producers

6953 (36.5% foreign)

Mainly apparel producers
17,776 (14.9% foreign)
Mainly apparel producers

131
Mainly women's wear producers

5647 (26.6% foreign)

Mainly retailers

42
Mainly women's wear producers

3020 (23.3% foreign)

Mainly retailers

39 (56.4% foreign)
Mainly women's
accessories producers
406 (22.4% foreign)
Accessories and semi-finished products for
the furniture industry
600 (25% foreign)
Accessories and semi-finished products for
the furniture industry
1498 (15.6% foreign)
Furnishing, design,
household goods, lights
Woodworking technology producers

3240
Mainly retailers

Moda In (two editions)

Pitti Uomo (two editions)

NeoZone (two editions)

White (two editions)

Cloudnine

Sasmil

Milan (I)
2630 May 2004

ZOW

Pordenone (I)
2023 Oct 2004

Salone del Mobile

Milan (I),
1419 Apr 2004

Xylexpo

Milan (I)
2630 May 2004

LIGNA+

Hannover (D)
2630 May 2003

1720 (50.5% foreign)

Woodworking technology producers

26,173 (34.3% foreign)

Mainly retailers

87,095 (49.6% foreign)

Furniture producers
16,349 (17.8% foreign)
Furniture producers
189,655 (52.6% foreign)
Mainly retailers
87,095 (49.6% foreign)
Woodworking, furniture
production industries
98,267 (40.8% foreign)
Forestry, woodworking,
furniture production industries

When we investigated more editions of the same trade show, data about exhibitors and visitors refer to the first edition we visited.

aspects of the exhibitions (e.g., locations, structure of exhibits,

visitor/exhibitor behavior). For some of the events, a significant
part of the time spent in the field was devoted to tracking the
experience of one to two informants during their visit (usually
for 1 or 2 days). In other words, members of the research team
followed the informants during their activities and when
necessary asked them to explain the motivation behind their
behaviors. This helped researchers to see the world (at least to
some extent) in the same way as the informants and to establish
an empathic relationship with them. While the focus was on
visitors, to have a complete picture it was also necessary to
observe and interview suppliers/exhibitors at the events and, in a
few occasions, the trade show organizers.
The fieldwork resulted in nearly 80 researcher-days of
field experience, over 180 interviews of various length with
visitors and exhibitors, more than 20 h of video and several
hundred pictures. This work gave rise to more than 800 pages
of field notes and interview transcriptions. The qualitative
data were subsequently analyzed through an iterative process
following the interpretive methodology proposed by Spiggle
(1994) and Arnould and Wallendorf (1994). Triangulation
between quantitative and qualitative data and the application
of member checking resulted in a representation of research
findings (Stern, 1998) that all members of the research group
shared.

A final caveat regards the nature of the research findings

reported in the section that follows. In some cases, interpretations are near to the worldviews of informants and are reinforced
with the help of verbatim transcriptions. In interpretive research,
this is considered an emic standpoint that reflects the process
through which researchers are socialized in the culture of their
informants to such a degree as to be able to obtain an empathic
understanding of their lived experiences (Berry, 1989). In other
cases, researchers distance themselves from informants and
make sense of the informant views from their own vantage point
of marketing scholars. This is an etic standpoint that reflects the
cultural categories and knowledge of previous literature that
were employed to interpret emic research findings (Berry, 1989).
By favoring etic interpretations, it is possible to theoretically
generalize the research findings beyond the empirically situated
contexts that have been explored.
4. Main findings: the nature of ongoing search in industrial
markets
The main findings of the present study may be categorized as
follows: (1) different visitors and motives to attend trade shows;
(2) outcomes of ongoing search processes; (3) the experiential
nature of ongoing search at trade shows; (4) the ritual dimension
of visitor behavior.

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S. Borghini et al. / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 11511159

4.1. Different visitors and motives to attend trade shows

Table 3
Main attendance motives for visitors from buying firms a

A first result of interest concerns the composition of trade

show audiences. The research findings clearly show that not all
visitors belong to buying centers, as they are not interested or
even indirectly involved in purchasing processes. While the
presence of atypical visitors is discussed by previous research
(e.g., Bello, 1992; Bello and Lohtia, 1993; Hansen, 1996; Godar
and O'Connor, 2001), the magnitude of this phenomenon is
greater than previously believed (see Table 2). In a few cases,
atypical visitors represent even more than 50% of trade show
audiences. Moreover, the variance in the presence of atypical
visitors is significant: it was found, for example, that trade
shows dedicated to retailers are more likely to attract atypical
visitors than events for industrial users.
Atypical visitors are mostly exhibitors' suppliers, exhibitors'
competitors, and firms operating in related industries. The
reasons why trade shows attract these typologies of visitors
are various. For example, exhibitors' suppliers collect market
intelligence on downstream sectors and try to establish
contacts for future sales. Exhibitors' competitors typically
undertake competitive intelligence activities. Operators from
related industries try to verify whether their own strategic
choices are aligned with those of exhibitors, e.g., fashion
accessory producers may assess to what extent colors and
patterns of their new collections are compatible with those
of apparel producers. As these visitors are beyond the scope
of the present study, interested readers are directed to other
work (Borghini et al., 2004). However, this study points
out that the greater the atypical to typical visitor ratio, the
more likely exhibitors are to question the effectiveness of
a given trade show to attract visitors, as they may be
annoyed by the presence of, to use their words, too many
curious people.
According to the evidence in the quantitative database, even
typical visitors who are members of buying centers are often

Trade shows

Table 2
Compositions of trade shows audience
Trade show

% Buying center % Atypical visitors Total visitor

sample (n)

A) TS dedicated to trade (retailers, wholesalers, exporters, )

Micam 04
77
23
Mipel 04
78
22
Momi 04
71
29
Moda Prima 04
42
58
Mifur 04
80
20
Salone del Mobile 04 41
59
Macef 04
77
23
On average
63
37
B) TS dedicated to Industrial users
Xylexpo 04
81
Fluidtrans
95
Compomac 04
Sasmil 04
77
Moda In 03
81
On average
82

101
103
100
50
50
274
153
831

Making
purchases (%)

Getting informed,
knowing the market,
seeing novelties (%)

Total
sampleb

A) TS dedicated to trade (retailers, wholesalers, importers, )

Micam 04
29
71
Mipel 04
21
63
Momi 04
34
63
Moda Prima 04
52
43
Mifur 04
32
68
Salone del Mobile 04
35
63
Macef 04
44
54
On average
34
62

78
80
71
21
40
112
118
520

B) TS dedicated to industrial users

Xylexpo 04
20
Fluidtrans Compomac 04
9
Sasmil 04
16
Moda In 03
67
On average
22

187
95
152
61
495

78
86
75
31
73

Source: Authors' elaboration on Fondazione Fiera Milano data.

a
Totals do not amount to 100% because we omitted other marginal reasons
to visit.
b
The sample is made of visitors from buying firms.

uninterested in making a purchase. Figures in Table 3 strongly

support the view that in most cases, the majority of members of
the buying centers are involved in an ongoing search for information unrelated to specific purchases. That is, buying centers
could be better described as learning centers as purchases are
not their prime motivation to attend trade shows. The informants declared that they attend trade shows to build a stock of
knowledge about products, suppliers and solutions for future
referral; to meet and pay courtesy visits to known and regular
suppliers; to update professional skills and thus improve their
credibility within their organization; to get inspiration for
product innovation; to take part in an important event in the
industry; to be part of the community; and to be reassured, in
times of crisis, by the presence of their suppliers and other
customers. While previous literature reports some of these motivations (e.g., Rothschild, 1987; Morris, 1988; Dudley, 1990;
Godar and O'Connor, 2001), this study reflects a more complex
and nuanced view of industrial buyers.
Ongoing search is thus broad, as it does not concern just
individual products or suppliers. By investing in the luxury of a
search for information which is not of immediate utility, typical
visitors make sense of the whole market and take a wide-ranging
view of the context where future acts of purchase will be situated.
Ongoing search is also generalized, as members of buying
centers, while looking at the world through the idiosyncratic
lenses of their occupational culture, tend to reach a shared
interpretation of key market and technological developments.

19
5

231
100

4.2. The outcomes of ongoing search processes

23
19
18

198
75
604

This section reports the most relevant outcomes of the ongoing search processes carried out in the context of trade shows.
These outcomes are often not anticipated, as visitors often state
they find the unexpected. Previous literature on trade shows

Source: Authors' elaboration on Fondazione Fiera Milano data.

S. Borghini et al. / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 11511159

discusses some of the outcomes reported below (e.g., Munuera

and Ruiz, 1999; Godar and O'Connor, 2001; Blythe, 2002);
however, even if previously investigated, the present article
discusses these outcomes from the novel angle of industrial
buyers' ongoing search processes.
4.2.1. Unexpected knowledge
As learning is one of the main reasons to attend, industrial
buyers often conceptualize outcomes of trade fair visits in terms
of new knowledge about products, suppliers, market trends.
Some of this knowledge is not even anticipated. According to
one of the informants, I don't know what I'll learn, but I know
that I'll learn something new. Often, visitors cannot assess the
practical value of what they learned in the short run: You see a
detail, you forget about it and, perhaps years later, you'll
remember and call that supplier to see if he can help. In other
words, visiting a trade show is a kind of insurance, a way to
gather knowledge that could be useful in an unforeseen future.
To this end, visitors do not even need to enter a stand and speak
with the booth personnel: while browsing along the trade show
corridors, they notice myriads of details, often unconsciously,
and more than one informant referred to this as an information
overload. Thus, after a trade show, visitors have learnt more
than they can tell.
Exhibitors do not contribute equally to visitors' ongoing
search processes. Market leaders are the most important sources
of knowledge about technological and market developments.
Even if regular suppliers are the main interlocutors during
innovation processes, during the ongoing search it is, above
all, the leading suppliers, not necessarily the habitual suppliers,
which present the best innovations. Their presence is fundamental in order to render the trade fair useful. Visitors often
consider the absence of market leaders as a shortcoming of the
trade show as a whole.
4.2.2. Inspiration
Many of the informants talked about the moments of insight
they often experience in the context of trade shows. During
visits, something attracts the attention of visitors and stimulates
an arousal of the mind to a special creativity that often regards
the solution to a problem or ideas for product/process innovation. Much like artists courting the Muses, visitors at trade
shows often find inspiration that fills them with enthusiasm as
they suddenly discover new opportunities, When I come back
to my office, I'm so full of ideas It's terrible I won't be able to
pursue them all for lack of time
Far from their usual workplaces, routines and deadlines,
visitors thus find a stimulating environment where they can
dedicate time to thinking creatively and pursuing new ideas.
Sources of inspiration are manifold, and include the new products
presented by suppliers, but also informal conversations with
suppliers, other visitors, co-workers. While exhibitors' messages
spread through product presentations, stand design, booth personnel's sales pitch stimulate inspiration, the ideas visitors obtain
from interactions from exhibitors can be quite dissimilar.
Through chains of cognitive associations, visitors have insights
which may be completely unrelated to exhibitor messages.

1155

Trade show visits are thus transformative experiences whose

outcomes go beyond exhibitors' communicative intentions.
4.2.3. Reassurance
Another important output of trade show visits is reassurance
about current suppliers and products employed. Visitors often
attend trade shows to confirm their existing suppliers (Godar
and O'Connor, 2001) rather than to choose new ones. Source
loyalty, which is usually strong in business markets (Morris and
Holman, 1988), does not, however, reduce comparison between
alternatives. Indeed, the buyers interviewed agreed that the
presence of their suppliers at the most important trade shows is
indicative of up-to-date skills and an ability to stay in the
market (on this, see also Blythe, 2002).
Reassurance also comes from the observation of what other
visitors/customers do, as they are employed as important terms
of comparison. Seeing what competitors order or how they
evaluate new products is useful in order to be reassured of or
generate dissonance on decisions already taken. Alternative
suppliers or products thus become a topic of conversation for
visitors among themselves and, once they go back to their
companies, with co-workers. The evaluation of alternatives is
thus an ongoing process that lasts even after a purchase is made
and is also enacted in the context of established relationships.
4.2.4. Establishing and maintaining relationships with suppliers and other visitors
Visiting a trade shows also has social implications. New
personal and professional relationships may be established, and
social ties within existing relationships may be maintained.
Interaction with suppliers is valuable in order to reduce social
distance and develop new knowledge. In most cases, buyers'
only contact with suppliers consists of sales reps' visits: trade
shows represent an opportunity to meet the suppliers' entrepreneurs, marketing and sales managers, technical staff. With a
brief conversation, problems that have lasted for months, if not
years, may be promptly solved. A face may be associated to
voices heard on the telephone and names read in e-mails. Old
acquaintances meet again and social ties are renewed. Face-toface meetings with knowledge individuals and actors thus nurture ongoing search processes.
Interaction among visitors is a phenomenon that previous
literature on trade shows has not highlighted. For individuals
holding positions of responsibility within firms, the possibility
to establish relationships with people holding similar positions
in other companies (e.g., other technicians, buyers, designers) is
fundamental for the establishment of a community of practice.
Trade shows provide a neutral setting for these interactions: a
function which is not often recognized, but that can be an
important motivation to visit.
4.3. The experiential nature of ongoing search at trade shows
During trade shows, buyers are immersed in an embodied
experience that entails all their senses, where they can touch,
smell, listen to, and even taste all the stimuli in the environment
provided by exhibitors together with trade show organizers.

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S. Borghini et al. / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 11511159

According to informants, what renders trade show experiences

more meaningful is the opportunity to touch the products,
speak to the people and look at each other in the eyes. This
section makes sense of the different elements that can foster or
hinder ongoing search processes in the context of trade shows
by employing the concept of experience providers proposed by
Schmitt (1999) in the literature on experiential marketing
(Holbrook and Hirschmann, 1982; Pine and Gilmore, 1998,
1999).
4.3.1. Suppliers' products and prototype
Products are by far the most appreciated experience providers.
The possibility to touch products allows experienced buyers
(e.g., those with a technical background) to understand how a new
tooling machine or semifinished product will impact on the
adopting firm's production processes and end products. When
moving through trade fairs' corridors, an interesting product that
stands out in the crowd of countless booths can induce visitors to
deviate from their planned path. Some visitors in the capital goods
sectors even ask exhibitors in advance which products they will
show and consequently decide whether to visit their stand or not.
Recently, exhibitors have started showing examples of prototypes
or products that could be obtained by using their machines or
semifinished products (e.g., clothes which can be made with the
company's fabrics or yarns). This type of presentation attracts
most interest among buyers, because through such presentations,
they can read the supplier's specialist skills. Allowing buyers to
take away samples or prototypes, so bringing a part of their
experience back into the company, is particularly appreciated
(Picture 1). In these situations, where there are numerous stimuli
and little possibility to filter them, an overload of the senses is
typical. Samples, prototypes and the accompanying documentation thus function as souvenirs able to re-evoke experiences that
will be more easily shared with co-workers not present at the
event.
4.3.2. Human resources and opportunities to establish
relations
Many buyers believe that trade shows constitute a neutral
environment where customers can interact with supplier employ-

Picture 1. Collecting product samples. Source: Pitti Immagine.

ees beyond sales staff or distributors. According to the buyers, the

opportunity to speak to the supplier's technical personnel is in
itself a good return on the investment to visit the supplier. These
contacts between suppliers' and customers' technicians result in
communities of practice which allow those involved to get ideas
for innovation, discuss common problems, obtain solutions, exchange favors and, above all, circulate (generally tacit) knowledge. Customers appreciate the convivial opportunities offered
by exhibitors as part of the business relation. Such occasions may
create a sense of familiarity with the supplier's staff which helps
to establish friendly relations, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and overcoming the relational problems that may have
emerged over time.
4.3.3. Sharing experiences and socializing with other buyers
The presence of other buyers during trade shows is considered
stimulating by customers. For example, a textile trade show
organizer placed facilities for relaxation close to the research area
(a space that summarizes the main trends for the season) that were
greatly appreciated by visiting designers from apparel companies.
By stimulating casual meetings and social interactions, these
relaxation areas permitted visitors to exchange views on the
new fashion trends and to keep updated with the news changes
in management or strategies at top firms, competitive moves from
rivals based in emerging countries and, above all, gossip. The
relational opportunities offered by trade shows can thus also
produce horizontal communities of practice between specialists
from different functions. People with specific positions within
companies (designers, researchers, technicians, and buyers) can
meet colleagues from other companies and establish contacts and
relations which, ultimately, enhance professional expertise and
help to resolve common problems.
4.4. The ritual dimension of visitor behavior
While current theory on trade shows stresses the instrumental
nature of participating in trade shows, these findings suggest
that in most cases participating in long-standing trade shows is
an institutionalized activity, i.e., one infused with value beyond
the technical requirements at hand (Selznick, 1957, p. 17). The
search for information of not immediate usefulness may thus be
the ex post rationalization of a behavior whose roots are in the
neo-tribal need of periodically meeting and interacting with
similar others belonging to different organizations. Several
informants, when asked about the reasons for being at the trade
show, replied that we have to be here to meet all the others,
coming here is a must, it's very sad if you miss one edition,
you feel you lost something important.
Institutionalization processes are possible because trade
shows are recurring events which take place with a frequency
linked to the length of the innovation cycle in their underlying
markets, i.e. biannual in the textileapparel industry, annual in
most others, biennial or even quadriennial in the case of capital
goods (Golfetto, 2004). Regular visitors' behavioral patterns
show, edition after edition, remarkable similarities in terms of
paths covered in trade fairs, stands visited, people talked to, etc.
Like the rituals investigated by anthropologists, trade shows are

S. Borghini et al. / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 11511159

episodic events where activities which are performed in a more

or less fixed sequence are repeated over time in an emotionally
charged context. The ethnographic data support the view that
trade shows are contexts where ritualized behavior occurs,
particularly in the cases of those habitus who are long-time
visitors.
Although variants are possible, a typical visitor's sequence of
activities is as follows. Firstly, visitors dedicate a significant
amount of time to the trend areas arranged by a few trade show
organizers to present the most significant innovations in a timesaving and visually compelling manner. Secondly, visitors visit
market leaders' stands: as leaders are usually innovators, these
visits give industrial buyers a sense of the new developments in
the industry and provide a benchmark to compare current suppliers. Thirdly, visitors pay courtesy visits to regular suppliers
who, in their stands, stage micro-rituals of welcome and hospitality. Finally, but only if sufficient time remains, visitors
examine other potential suppliers. However, on occasions, visitors may deviate from their intended path and visit exhibitors that
attract their attention when moving from one booth to the next.
The ritual dimension of visitor behavior is not limited to
repeated sequences of activities. Trade shows may be categorized when adopting the taxonomy proposed by Cova and
Salle (2000) based on anthropological scholarship (Van
Gennep, 1909; Goffman, 1959) as rituals of integration that
mark membership of a given community. In other words, participating in trade shows reinforces the communitarian values
that hold people together and stimulates the spontaneous emergence of feelings of communitas among visitors and exhibitors
alike, a situation which contrasts with the individualism of the
ordinary, mundane professional life. A characteristic of ritual
contexts is liminality (Van Gennep, 1909; Turner, 1974). The
Latin term limen means threshold or transversal boundary.
Liminality refers to states of passage from one condition to
another; in liminal states, individuals may question traditional
manners of operating and recognize new opportunities, and end
up seeing the world in a different manner. Interactions with
exhibitors and other visitors in the context of courtesy visits to
suppliers and accidental meetings with other members of the
industry pave the way for collective sense-making activities
facilitated by the exchange of information often in the form of
gossip on what is going on in the market. While the etic
concepts of rituals and liminality do not recur in the conversations with the informants, many of them highlighted the fact
that we are not the same when we come back to our office, as
new ideas, new inspiration, new ways of looking at the evolution of the market and the confirmation of decisions already
taken change worldviews.
Although for new trade shows or new visitors rational
reasons relating to information-search-only can motivate the
decision to attend, in most other cases, the ritual dimension of
visitor behavior is a major contextual factor with significant
theoretical and managerial implications. From a theoretical point
of view, a ritual perspective can act as a corrective to the undersocialized view of trade show visitor behavior inherent in the
received view". From a managerial point of view, representing
industrial buyers as utility-maximizing information-processing

1157

agents may lead to poor marketing communications strategies:

for example, deciding to stop exhibiting at a trade show because,
as often heard, we know all customers here.
5. Emerging theoretical framework and managerial
implications
This section proposes a theoretical framework based on the
research findings (Fig. 1). The model represents ongoing search
processes at trade shows as activities whose outcomes are
influenced by the quality and quantity of the experience
providers proposed by both exhibitors and trade show organizers. Moreover, the model suggests that broader outcomes
beyond those actively sought by visitors render trade shows
important events in the lives of markets and industries.
Ongoing search processes are not just cognitive activities:
they are embodied experiences. As a consequence, various
experience providers may foster or hinder the outcomes of
ongoing search processes. A trade show may be conceived as a
temporary network of companies that stages micro-experiences
for their target customers thanks to the presence of their products and human resources and through a booth design that
facilitates the interaction of visitors among themselves. The
overall experience lived by industrial buyers in the context of
trade shows is, however, greater than the sum of these
individual experiences. Trade show organizers, or at least the
more competent ones, actively design visitor experiences at the
macro level by creating the right atmosphere, in some cases by
arranging visually compelling trend areas, and by selecting
exhibitors based on appropriate criteria. In this sense, each
exhibitor may be considered an input for visitors' ongoing
search processes, and the finding that market leaders are more
informative than other exhibitors has important implications for
the design of visitor-centered trade shows.
Moreover, the ongoing search processes of regular trade show
visitors displays a ritual dimension, characterized by repetitive
sequences of behaviors and by conditions of liminality that help
visitors to distance themselves from ordinary ways of looking at
the business world. Under these circumstances, ongoing search
processes produce outcomes which industrial buyers actively
seek (i.e., new knowledge, inspiration, reassurance, the reactualization of relationships) together with broader, macro-level
effects such as collective sense-making and the fostering of a
sense of communitas. In the lives of markets and industries, trade
shows thus have a significance which goes beyond exhibitors'
individual marketing practices.
The managerial implications of the model are clear. All the
actors that take part to the event itself co-create good trade
shows: trade show organizers, exhibitors and visitors. So far,
trade show literature has neglected the macro-level role of
organizers in creating the context enabling individual exhibitors
and visitors to make the most of their participation (for an
exception, see Rinallo and Golfetto, 2006). The results show, for
example, that the presence of market leaders is of paramount
importance if the trade show has to fulfill its role in providing
inspiration to visitors; that trends areas are of similar relevance in
obtaining the most from the visit; that socialization areas that

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S. Borghini et al. / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 11511159

Fig. 1. An interpretive model of ongoing search among trade show visitors.

enable visitors to interact and share knowledge among themselves are also an important ingredient for a successful trade
show. From a different perspective, organizers are also
responsible to some extent for the casting of the participants
to the event. If communitas is a desirable outcome, selecting
participants that fit well together is of paramount importance.
For example, the presence of consumers at the Milan Furniture
trade show (Salone del Mobile) annoys professional visitors
(architects, interior designers, retailers) because of the more
crowded environment and heightened competition to attract
exhibitors' attention. In other European trade shows, organizers
are now accepting Asian exhibitors. Domestic exhibitors hinder
the presence of these foreign rivals as they manifest in their own
place the forces of globalization in such a way as to disturb the
proper establishment of communitas.
The research findings also contradict some of the managerial implications of extant trade show literature. Dedicating time
to listen to and provide information to curious visitors not
engaged in an immediate purchase decision is not a waste of
effort as suggested by some authors (e.g., Bello, 1992; Bello
and Lohtia, 1993), but rather an investment to strengthen
reputation and brand image an investment whose returns
cannot and should not be evaluated in the short term. In an
ongoing search perspective, a visitor who is neglected today
may become an important purchase influencer in a more or less
distant future.
The model here provides guidance regarding the selection of
trade shows and the measurement of returns on trade show
investments. The results show the difficulties in establishing a
causal relationship between trade show investments and measurable returns. Unlike trade shows held in emerging markets, those
taking place in penetrated markets do not generate significant
leads, to the extent that some companies question their effectiveness based on the models prevailing in the academic literature.
Yet, these trade shows fulfill the role of maintaining relationships,
rather than creating new ones, by re-actualizing social ties and by
reducing customers' cognitive dissonance. Moreover, when
considering that visitors engage in an ongoing search, the tem-

poral horizon of the return on trade show investments will

inexorably be longer, and short-sighted exhibitors could loose
some opportunities.
6. Conclusions
This article provides evidence about the nature of ongoing
search processes in industrial markets, which are a path of
continual learning often not linked to specific purchase objectives.
The study contributes to literature on information search among
industrial buyers by highlighting its bias in favor of search processes that lead to short-term purchases. While indirect proofs of
ongoing search processes are present in trade show literature, this
article explicitly addresses this phenomenon and thus fills a gap in
the scholarship about organizational buying behavior.
While trade shows were the empirical context rather than
the object of this study, the research also has strong
implications for trade show scholarship. The research findings,
synthesized in the interpretive model shown in Fig. 1, offer a
more complex and nuanced view of visitor behavior at trade
shows and introduce a broader perspective of the significance
of these events for their underlying markets which goes beyond
the marketing objectives of individual exhibitors. Current
research on the subject represents visitors in an undersocialized
manner and calls for additional research on the anthropological
phenomena that take place in the context of trade shows. Similar
to other events that bring together all relevant actors in an
organizational field (e.g., Anand and Watson, 2004), trade shows
may shape the evolution of markets (Rinallo and Golfetto,
2006). The conceptual lenses of organization scholars could
thus complement marketing scholarship to offer a more balanced
and in-depth comprehension of trade shows.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank SDA Bocconi, CERMES
Bocconi and Fondazione Fiera Milano for their financial
support to the present study.

S. Borghini et al. / Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 11511159

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