This study has several important limitations that provide good opportunities for further research. Firstly, while the findings of this study provide evidence that the purchasing behaviour is directly related to the firm s size for more valid claims further studies must be conducted over a larger population of firms to reaffirm these preliminary results. Secondly as there is very little
information regarding purchasing practices within SMEs, it was difficult to find a small company and a large company within the same business sector to make valid comparisons. For future research, pilot studies could be conducted to create a database of questionnaires and answers to facilitate the comparison process.
Another limitation of this study was the fact that we used secondary data as a basis for
investigation, much of which was in excess of 5-10 years- further reducing the validity of some of the data. To improve the accuracy and reliability of the results arising from this study, future researchers may decide to conduct some primary, field research. Future research may also look to see what similarities or differences there are in purchasing between different sectors i.e. manufacturing and nonmanufacturing for both types of firm (large & small) as Morrisey found in his study that SMEs are not homogenous and have different purchasing behaviour depending on the sector.
Lastly some of the data collected in this study might have been influenced by other factors not specifically related to purchasing behaviour, such as buying power. Therefore, future research needs to identify and account for those factors.
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