Title: The analysis on the determinants of mobile VIP customer churn: a logistic regression approach

Authors: Qian Su; Peiji Shao; Quanfu Ye

Addresses: Management Faculty, Chengdu University of Information Technology, No. 10, XingFuLu, Longquanyi, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China. ' School of Economics and Management, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), No. 2, JiansheBei Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, China. ' School of Economics and Management, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), No. 2, JiansheBei Road, Chengdu, Sichuan 610054, China

Abstract: According to 20/80 principle, retaining VIP customers is one of the most critical challenges in the maturing mobile telecommunications service market. However, there are little literatures to explain why the VIP customers churn. Using mobile VIP customers' huge transaction and billing database, this study investigates determinants of mobile VIP customer churn. The results indicate that the switching cost: virtual private mobile network (VPMN) and family package are the most important factors in VIP customers churn. However, some marketing tools on ordinary users such as accumulated loyalty points, terminal bound contract do not work on VIP customers, which raise the questions about this marketing programme effectiveness. This study provides implications for the competition policies of mobile telephony market.

Keywords: VIP customers; churn determinants; mobile services; m-services; mobile communications; customer churn; switching cost; marketing effectiveness; mobile phones; cell phones.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2012.049016

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2012 Vol.18 No.1/2, pp.61 - 74

Published online: 09 Aug 2014 *

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