A Research Upon Customer Switching Antecedents And Mechanism In Mobile Communication Industry

Customer switching becomes an important issue because of its negative influence onservice enterprises. Mobile communication industry is one of the typical service industries.The reduction in rates and the improvement of technology bring more fierce competitions andhomogeneity services. Mobile customers have the facilities to choose the operator which canprovide better quality and lower prices. So customers switching behavior (churning) occursfrequently, and the low switching barriers drives it even more serious. The phenomenonbecame one of the most concerned issues for mobile telecommunication companies. Theempirical study researched the customer switching antecedents and internal mechanisms inmobile communication market from the consumers' perspectives, to answer the followingquestions: What are the mobile customers switching antecedents? And how do they drive thecustomers to switch? Customer Perceived value is an important behavioral driver, and what isits role in customers switching process?Based on a series of empirical studies, the following conclusions can be drawn: customerswitching antecedents have a positive effect on switching intention, of which attraction bycompetitors and social influence can promote switching intention directly. Customerperceived value is an important intermediate variable during the process of switching. Pricing,inconvenience, and service encounter failures can not affect switching intention directly. Theyneed the adjustment of customer perceived value to affect switching intention indirectly. Coreservice quality is the most important antecedent of switching intention. It is the only variablewhich affect both customer perceived value and switching intention directly.Althoughcustomers need to consider service techniques, but its impact is not notable.The significance of the study is to establish a conceptual model of customer switching inmobile communication industry, explored customer switching antecedents, and introducedcustomer perceived value into the model to illuminated the path the antecedents influencecustomer switching intention, enriched the customer switching theory. Conclusion of thestudy can be applied to help the mobile operators analyze the reasons why customers churning,thereby reduce customer churn rate and improve customer retention.