TITLE:
Exploring the Impact of Switching Costs on Customer Retention in the Technology Standard Competition Market
AUTHORS:
Yong Zhang, Xi Chen, Yuhong Zhao, Qiong Yao
KEYWORDS:
Standard Competition, Switching Costs, Customer Retention, Technology Standard Complexity, Technology Upgradability
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Service Science and Management,
Vol.7 No.4,
August
13,
2014
ABSTRACT: As the
competition in the market is increasingly fierce, increasing consumers’
switching cost has already become an important strategy for enterprises.
However, existing research lacks discussion about switching costs in the
standard competition market. This research develops a model of switching costs’
impact on customer retention in the standard competition market. The findings
suggest that in the standard competition market, different factors that affect
customer switching costs have different effects on switching costs. Technology
standard complexity, technology upgradability, and customer investment have
significant positive influences on switching costs, but the customer experience
presents the negative correlation with switching costs. Furthermore, switching
cost is positively related with customer retention, especially the lost benefit
cost which has the largest impact on customer retention. This study improves
the researches of switching costs antecedent influencing factors, and it is of
much importance for enterprises in the standards competition to manage
switching costs better and implement customer retention.