"Martha owns a chocolate factory where each chocolate treat is made by hand. Her assistant Daniel feels that the rate of production can be dramatically increased if the company switched to an automated assembly line to manufacture the chocolates. When he proposes this idea to Martha, she agrees and begins evaluating different vendors who might provide the equipment to the company. Which of the following roles did Daniel perform in the purchasing process?"a) Deciderb) Initiatorc) Buyerd) Gatekeeper

b) Initiator

Explanation:

As Martha owns a chocolate factory where each chocolate treat is made by hand. Her assistant Daniel feels that the rate of production can be dramatically increased if the company switched to an automated assembly line to manufacture the chocolates. When he proposes this idea to Martha, she agrees and begins evaluating different vendors who might provide the equipment to the company. Daniel has performed the role of initiator in this purchasing process. In purchasing process, there are many people involved:

Initiator - Influencer - Decider - Buyer - User

Initiator starts the idea, presents the idea of buying something which then is influenced and enhanced by the influencer, and then actual decider decides the buying product and is being bought then and further used by someone. These all persons can be the same person and or either one single person can perform all of these roles but here in this case Daniel has performed the role of initiator as he has given the advise of automation to Martha.

answer; functional fixedness;