Title: Customer resistance to churn in a mature mobile telecommunications market

Authors: Seungyeon Kim; Younghoon Chang; Siew Fan Wong; Myeong-Cheol Park

Addresses: Department of Fintech Business, KB Financial Group, KB Card Building 3rd floor, 30, Saemunan-ro 3-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03173, South Korea ' School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 South Zhongguancun St., Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, China ' Department of Computing and Information Systems, Faculty of Science and Technology, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway 47500 Selangor, Malaysia ' School of Business and Technology Management, College of Business, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), #504, Alumni Building, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34141, South Korea

Abstract: Effective customer retention is critical for company survival, especially in a mature mobile telecommunications market. To build on customer retention research, we propose an integrative model capturing the dual relational mechanisms that explain customer resistance to churn. We empirically test the model using data from 815 subscribers who have stayed with their mobile network operators for more than three years. The results show that two contrasting mechanisms, dedication-based and constraint-based relationships, simultaneously determine customer resistance to churn. The constraints of procedural, financial, and relational costs significantly influence perceived risk, while dedication factors of economy-based and identification-based trust significantly influence commitment.

Keywords: resistance to churn; customer retention; constraint-based relationship; dedication-based relationship.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2020.104421

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2020 Vol.18 No.1, pp.41 - 66

Received: 30 Oct 2017
Accepted: 20 Sep 2018
Published online: 10 Jan 2020 *

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