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Although research into the determinants of service provider switching has grown in recent years, the focus has been predominantly on transactional, not relational, variables. In this research, the authors address the role of consumer commitment on consumers' intentions to switch. Drawing from the organizational behavior literature, they build on previous service switching research by developing a switching model that includes a three-component conceptualization of customer commitment. Structural equation modeling is used to test the model based on data from a survey of 356 auto repair service customers. The authors' results support the notion that customer commitment affects intentions to switch service providers and that the psychological states underlying that commitment may differ. As such, future marketing research should consider these different forms of commitment in understanding customer retention. The implications of this model for theory and practice are discussed.
Keywords: customer switching; services marketing; consumer commitment; relationship marketing
The benefits of customer retention can be significant (Reynolds and Arnold 2000). As the service sector increases to in excess of 70 percent of North American gross national product (GNP), increasing numbers of researchers are attempting to understand the determinants of service provider switching and loyalty (e.g., Bansal and Taylor 1999b; Bhattacharya 1998; Bolton, Kannan, and Bramlett 2000; Jones, Mothersbaugh, and Beatty 2000; Keaveney 1995; Sharma and Patterson 2000). However, as Dube and Shoemaker (2000) pointed out, research on this topic is still in its infancy. To date, researchers have failed to identify a strong set of switching predictor variables and attempts to provide strong organizing theoretical frameworks for these relationships have been limited.
The most commonly studied drivers of service provider switching and customer retention include quality or satisfaction, switching costs, and more recently, alternative attractiveness and social influences (e.g., Bansal and Taylor 1999a, 1999b; Jones et al. 2000; Ping 1993; Sharma and Patterson 2000). However, noticeably missing from this research are studies that consider aspects of the relationship between consumers and service providers. Dube and Shoemaker (2000) in their review of this literature pointed out that there is a need to look beyond just transactional-type variables and include "relationship" variables when trying to understand switching.
One of the central concepts in the relationship-marketing paradigm is that of customer commitment (Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987;...