Determinants affecting the use of an intermediary when buying meeting services

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to identify the factors determining a business organisation's use of an intermediary when buying convention packages and meeting services. Design/methodology/approach – The data are based on a case, a public organisation responsible for promoting and intermediating meetings, incentives, contentions and events (MICE) services provided by small and medium‐sized tourism organisations in southern Finland. An online questionnaire was used for the data collection and a total of 223 valid responses were collected. Explorative factor analysis was used to analyse the research results. Findings – Based on explorative factor analysis it is suggested there are three distinct factors as determinants of the phenomenon, namely “Attractive convention packages”, “Know‐how of the personnel”, and “Ease of buying a convention package”. The results of the structural equation modelling reveal that ease of buying a convention package is the primary reason for using the intermediary, while attractive convention packages and know‐how of the personnel have a much lower effect. Research limitations/implications – More research is needed to explore if there are more attributes affecting the use of an intermediary in the buying process. Practical implications – Intermediaries of meeting services can develop their services by paying more attention to how to make the buying process easier and more flexible for the customer. Originality/value – Earlier studies have not analysed the structure of the interrelationships among variables affecting the use of an intermediary in the purchase of meeting services, or empirically verified constructs to measure these factors.