The impact of switching barriers and customer satisfaction components on actual switching behavior

Abstract

In marketing literature, satisfaction has been regarded as a key manifest variable to affect repurchase intention. Previous researches have investigated moderators and other variables, which have influenced the relationship between satisfaction and repurchase intention. Among several related variables, switching barriers are acknowledged as the one of key drivers to strengthening customers repurchase intention. Most marketing researchers share the consensus that repurchase intention increases, the probability of switching to another firm decreases. Therefore most researches regard this idea as natural, as if customers are satisfied (dissatisfied) with services or products offered by firms, then they would stay (leave). In this manner, switching behavior is considered to have the simple causal relation with repurchase intention.

This study starts from doubts that repurchase intention cannot fully predict actual switching behavior. Until now there have been a lack of evidence to support our idea, but some researchers argue that predicting switching behavior may not enough to be explained by the simple causal relationship with repurchase intention, because the mechanism of switching behaviors could be more complicated than expected. Therefore we use a bivariate probit model to examine the relationship between components of customer satisfaction and actual switching behavior.

In this study, based on the case of The Korean mobile telecommunication service industry, we suggest empirical evidences to support this notion that satisfaction components do not significantly influence actual switching behavior even if the behavior fully explain repurchase intention. In addition, by comparing the satisfaction - loyalty linkage with the satisfaction - switching behavior linkage, it is revealed that satisfaction components do not fully explain for specific customer type to prevent from switching current service provider. In addition, the impact of switching barriers is sign...