Factors Affecting Switching
Journal of Economic & Administrative Sciences
Vol. 26, No. 1, June 2010 (27 -51)
Factors Affecting Switching Behavior of Mobile Service Users: The Case of Jordan Dr. Mohammad Suleiman Awwad Mr. Bashar Awad Neimat Mutah University Al-Hussein Bin Talal University Jordan Abstract This study aims at identifying the most critical factors affecting the customer switching behavior for mobile service providers in Jordan. A number of 580 questionnaires distributed to a random sample of Jordanian mobile users. The questionnaire contains 33 items measured on a five-point likert scale. The data were analyzed using regression analysis. It was found that all the independent variables (pricing, inconvenience, core service failures, service encounter failures, employee responsiveness to service failures, attraction by competitors, changes in technology, switching cost) had a significant effect on switching behavior of mobile service users except change in technology and employee responsiveness to service failure. Recommendations and directions for future research are proposed. Introduction Competition in the wireless telecommunication industries has grown at an unprecedented rate in the past several years. The growth of the wireless telecommunications market is due not only to the greater number of subscribers but also to the greater variety of services that are now offered. In the early stages of market growth, the emphasis was on acquiring new subscribers, but now as the market matures, the significance of retaining current customers increase drastically. Attracting new customers is more difficult and expensive than retaining existing customers, this is partly because service providers acquire considerable information about existing customers and can analyze this valuable information to understand their preferences and behavior (Brown, 2004). In addition, in a mature market, acquiring new subscribers often means taking them away from other service providers, which requires
Vol. 26, No. 1, June 2010 (27 -51)
Factors Affecting Switching Behavior of Mobile Service Users: The Case of Jordan Dr. Mohammad Suleiman Awwad Mr. Bashar Awad Neimat Mutah University Al-Hussein Bin Talal University Jordan Abstract This study aims at identifying the most critical factors affecting the customer switching behavior for mobile service providers in Jordan. A number of 580 questionnaires distributed to a random sample of Jordanian mobile users. The questionnaire contains 33 items measured on a five-point likert scale. The data were analyzed using regression analysis. It was found that all the independent variables (pricing, inconvenience, core service failures, service encounter failures, employee responsiveness to service failures, attraction by competitors, changes in technology, switching cost) had a significant effect on switching behavior of mobile service users except change in technology and employee responsiveness to service failure. Recommendations and directions for future research are proposed. Introduction Competition in the wireless telecommunication industries has grown at an unprecedented rate in the past several years. The growth of the wireless telecommunications market is due not only to the greater number of subscribers but also to the greater variety of services that are now offered. In the early stages of market growth, the emphasis was on acquiring new subscribers, but now as the market matures, the significance of retaining current customers increase drastically. Attracting new customers is more difficult and expensive than retaining existing customers, this is partly because service providers acquire considerable information about existing customers and can analyze this valuable information to understand their preferences and behavior (Brown, 2004). In addition, in a mature market, acquiring new subscribers often means taking them away from other service providers, which requires