Logistical antecedents of buyer satisfaction in the printing and designing industries

Buyers are the main stakeholders of any business establishment. Analyzing and understanding buyer satisfaction helps firms to understand their buyers’ desired level of needs and expectations; which serves to link processes culminating in purchase and consumption. Therefore, the knowledge of antecedents of buyer satisfaction is essential in order for a business to be successful. This study reports the antecedents of buyer satisfaction by taking the case of the printing and designing industry in Tanzania. The main objective is to identify the logistical factors that influence buyer satisfaction. Specifically, this study aims to determine the impact of information sharing, order accuracy and timeliness of order fulfilment on buyer satisfaction. Based on the objectives, hypotheses were formulated to find out whether there exists a significant positive association between buyer satisfaction and the aforementioned factors. This study is an exploratory research which is quantitative in nature and relies on primary data collected through questionnaires issued to 100 buyers from various printing and designing companies located in Dar es Salaam and Moshi. The collected data and hypotheses were tested by using multiple regression analysis. Study findings suggest that information sharing and timeliness of order fulfilment are valid measures of buyer satisfaction. Therefore, the study recommends that business managers should analyze their business processes and make the necessary changes in operations to improve the flow and use of information in an effort to increase efficiency in production and order fulfilment time. This will improve the buyer-seller relationship while at the same time reduce delayed deliveries, in turn resulting in having more satisfied clients and strengthened competitive advantage.