Title: Estimation of customer retention for Indian mobile telecommunication sector

Authors: M. Ravindar Reddy; Srikanth Ganesh; T. Rahul; Nandini Mann

Addresses: School of Management, National Institute of Technology, Warangal – 506004, India ' School of Management, National Institute of Technology, Warangal – 506004, India ' School of Management, National Institute of Technology, Warangal – 506004, India ' School of Management, National Institute of Technology, Warangal – 506004, India

Abstract: The objectives of this study are to find the factors that influence the customer loyalty and switching barriers and based on these factors predict the retention level of individual customer using artificial neural network. A well-structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to a random sample of mobile phone users. The questionnaire contains factors affecting customer retention, measured on a five-point Likert-scale. The data were analysed using factor analysis to identify the factors affecting customer loyalty and switching barriers. A paired sample T-test was carried out to determine the relationship between customer retention and customer loyalty and also to determine relationship between customer retention and switching barriers. Functional link artificial neural network (FLANN) and Legendre neural networks (LeNNs) were used to predict retention level of a customer. From the analysis, it was concluded that the switching barriers are as important as customer loyalty for retaining customers, and the FLANN model gives better customer retention prediction than the LeNN model.

Keywords: customer loyalty; switching barriers; customer retention; functional link ANNs; artificial neural networks; FLANNs; Legendre neural networks; LeNNs; mobile telecommunications; mobile phones; cell phones; India; mobile communications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2014.063766

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2014 Vol.16 No.3, pp.233 - 246

Published online: 25 Jul 2014 *

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