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This article explores the applicability of a model of migration from the human geography literature as a unifying, theoretical framework for understanding consumers' service provider switching behaviors. Survey data from approximately 700 consumers are used to examine the usefulness of the push, pull, and moorings (PPM) migration model. The PPM migration model performs better than an alternative model; all three categories of antecedents to switching (migration)-push, pull, and mooring variables-have significant direct, and some moderating, effects on switching intentions.
Keywords: service provider switching; migration
Service provider switching can have a significant impact on a firm; it is therefore important to understand why customers switch service providers. Variables that might influence switching include quality and satisfaction (e.g., Dabholkar and Walls 1999; McDougall and Levesque 2000), value (e.g., Bansal and Taylor 1999a), the perceived costs of switching (e.g., Ping 1993), alternative attractiveness (e.g., Jones, Mothersbaugh, and Beatty 2000), attitudes toward switching (e.g., Bansal and Taylor 1999b), trust (e.g., Chaudhuri and Holbrook 2001), commitment (e.g., Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, and Gremler 2002), social influences, and the propensity for variety seeking (e.g., Bansal and Taylor 1999a, 2002). To date, a comprehensive study of these determinants has yet to be conducted. In addition, attempts at providing a theoretical framework for these relationships have been limited (for exceptions, see Bansal and Taylor 1999b, 2002).
The notion of people switching between one entity and another is not limited to marketing situations; theoretically based, comprehensive models of switching do exist in other literatures. In fact, the human geography literature contains a number of studies investigating switching behavior; specifically, "migration" research examines switching between locales. The correspondence between migration and customers' switching behavior is appealing. Whereas migration involves the flow of people from one geographic area to another, service provider switching involves the flow of customers from one service provider to another. Clark and Knapp (1996) already pointed out this analogy in the migration literature: "Just as individuals shop for consumer goods, potential migrants compare the attributes of alternative locations and express those preferences by moving to the location that best satisfies them" (p. 3).
The "push-pull" framework (Bogue 1969, 1977), with extensions to include intervening or mooring variables (Lee 1966; Moon 1995), is a dominant paradigm in migration research. Essentially, this paradigm suggests that...