...com/locate/ijinfomgt Understanding customer satisfaction and loyalty: An empirical study of mobile instant messages in China Zhaohua Deng a,∗ , Yaobin Lu a , Kwok Kee Wei b , Jinlong Zhang a a b School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan, China Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong a r t i c l e Article history: i n f o a b s t r a c t With the rapid development of mobile technology and large usage rates of mobile phones, mobile instant message (MIM) services have been widely adopted in China. Although previous studies on the adoption of mobile services are quite extensive, few focus on customer satisfaction and loyalty to MIM in China. In this study, we examine the determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The findings confirm that trust, perceived service quality, perceived customer value, including functional value and emotional value, contribute to generating customer satisfaction with MIM. The results also show that trust, customer satisfaction and switching cost directly enhance customer loyalty. Additionally, this study finds that age, gender, and usage time have moderating effects. Finally, implications for the marketing of MIM are discussed. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Mobile instant message Trust Perceived customer value Perceived service quality Customer satisfaction Switching cost Customer loyalty 1. Introduction With...
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...CUSTOMER LOYALTY : THE CASE OF MOBILE PHONE USERS IN UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA Prepared by Meguellati Achour Pn. Nor Pujawati Md. Said Dr. Ali Boerhannueddin Abstract Service quality, switching barriers, and brand image are the major antecedents of customer loyalty, and loyal customers may buy more, accept higher prices and have a positive word-of-mouth effect. Also we know that the cost of selling to new customers is much higher than the cost of selling to existing customers, also the cost of attract new customers is much higher than the cost protect existing customers ten times. Although this fact is apparent to everyone, many companies are still losing customers at a formidable rate. In this context the main aim of this research is to examine the relationships between these factors and customer loyalty in the Universiti Utara Malaysia sector. Based on the theoretical model, a comprehensive set of hypotheses were formulated and a methodology for testing them was outlined. These hypotheses were tested empirically by questionnaires to demonstrate the applicability of the theoretical model. The results indicate that service quality, switching barriers, and brand image are separate constructs that combine to determine the loyalty, with service quality and switching barriers exerting a stronger influence than brand image. Finally hypotheses H1, H2 were supported, while hypothesis...
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...CUSTOMER LOYALTY : THE CASE OF MOBILE PHONE USERS IN UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA Prepared by Meguellati Achour Pn. Nor Pujawati Md. Said Dr. Ali Boerhannueddin Abstract Service quality, switching barriers, and brand image are the major antecedents of customer loyalty, and loyal customers may buy more, accept higher prices and have a positive word-of-mouth effect. Also we know that the cost of selling to new customers is much higher than the cost of selling to existing customers, also the cost of attract new customers is much higher than the cost protect existing customers ten times. Although this fact is apparent to everyone, many companies are still losing customers at a formidable rate. In this context the main aim of this research is to examine the relationships between these factors and customer loyalty in the Universiti Utara Malaysia sector. Based on the theoretical model, a comprehensive set of hypotheses were formulated and a methodology for testing them was outlined. These hypotheses were tested empirically by questionnaires to demonstrate the applicability of the theoretical model. The results indicate that service quality, switching barriers, and brand image are separate constructs that combine to determine the loyalty, with service quality and switching barriers exerting a stronger influence than brand image. Finally hypotheses H1, H2 were supported, while hypothesis...
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...of ‘the mobile number portability’ in October 15, 2008 in Malaysia has made it easier to switch to other service providers. Thus, the following are hypothesized: H1: A high level of switching cost is less likely to make mobile phone users switch to other service providers; and H2: A high level of switching cost moderates the relationship between service satisfaction and service switching. This paper will discuss the results of these two hypotheses tested using linear and moderated regression analysis. Data was obtained using a sample of about 500 employees and students of five public universities and two private universities in Malaysia. Findings from this study will develop insights to better strategize and effectively implement loyalty programs and so, prevent their customers from switching. Keywords: switching behavior, service quality, consumer satisfaction, mobile phone service usage Field of research: consumer behavioral aspects of marketing, mobile phone service SERVICE SWITCHING AND SWITCHING TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY COST IN THE MOBILE Although switching is a common scenario in most service industries (Griffin & Lowenstein, 2001), it is more prevalent in telecommunication services (Lee & Murphy 2005). For example, the annual switching rate ranges from 20% to 40% in most of the global telecommunication service companies (Berson et al., 1999; Madden et al., 1999). Until two years ago, mobile service users in Malaysia faced significant costs in switching...
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...1 | P a g e State of the Mobile Nation Switching Attitudes and Behaviours of Mobile Phone Service Providers in Australia Final Report Dr David Gray Dr Steven D’Alessandro Dr Leanne Carter Macquarie University Department of Marketing and Management. March, 20122 | P a g e Table of Contents Executive Summary...........................................................................................6 (i) Introduction ..........................................................................................6 (ii) Objectives of the research ....................................................................6 (iii) Methodology ........................................................................................6 (iv) Key findings .........................................................................................6 (a) The performance of the mobile phone services market..........6 (b) Switching behaviour and savings achieved.............................7 (c) Consumer satisfaction with mobile carriers .............................7 (d) Major reasons for switching carriers.........................................7 (e) Switching costs..........................................................................8 (f) The role of inertia in limiting switching......................................8 (g) The reasons for not switching...................................................8 (h) Bill shock....................................................................
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...Abstract The Study of Customer Loyalty Factors in the Mobile Telecommunications Industry in China This article is a study of Chinese telecommunications service customer loyalty factors and the impact of the internal mechanism. The industry empirical study reveals the communications services industry, the impact factors of customer loyalty, and the interaction between these factors mechanism. With the increasingly fierce market competition and increase costs for customers, cultivate and maintain long-term customer loyalty is a business enterprise can be an important factor. On the one hand, enterprises have to get a good income, in addition to the core technology and improving product quality, but customer satisfaction, service quality and Enterprise Image will to some extent affect on customer loyalty, loyal customers are the main profit source. On the other hand, when supply exceeds demand in the market environment, the cost to acquire new customers than to maintain existing customer costs, but the profit contribution of new customers is far less than the original customer. Finally, the loyalty of customers through word of mouth to bring new business customers. Therefore, the development of customer loyalty strategies, research customer needs and maintain long-term two-way interaction with the customer relationship business and academia has been the focus of attention. Customer loyalty in the communications industry, more and more attention, is the communications business...
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...Discussion on the Topic 3 Switching Your Service Provider 3 Mobile Number Portability 5 1st Country to Implement MNP in South Asia 5 MNP Creates Vigorous Competition Among Players 5 Research Methodology 6 Data Collection 6 Sample Size 6 Objectives 7 Scope 7 DATA ANALYSIS 8 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents: 8 Hypothesis: 9 Regression 9 Most preferred service provider in Karachi 11 Kind of Service 12 Interpretation 12 Best Service Rater 12 Interpretation: 13 Consumer Loyalty to Brands 13 Interpretation: 13 FINDINGS: 14 Recommendations 14 Conclusion 14 References 15 Attachment 16 Questionnaire 16 Introduction All organizations have their hidden motive to increase the profitability. Successful organizations are attracting customers by raising their expectations and are delivering performances over and above the customer expectation levels. Successful organizations are investing heavily on promotion to increase the customer expectations and are devising their strategies to delight the customer. In customer satisfaction process, if the performance falls short of expectations, the customer is dissatisfied. If the performance matches the expectations, the customer is satisfied. If the performance exceeds expectations, the customer is highly satisfied or delighted. Long-run satisfaction leads to customer retention / loyalty. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority confirms that the total number of cell phone users in Pakistan have...
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...music and video industry, the mobile phones industry, and the personal computer (PC) industry. Because its participation in the overall PC industry is comparatively small compared to its other products, only the first three industries shall be analysed here. Apple’s overall business includes eight product lines: iPhone , its related products and services; iPad and related products and services, Mac portables and other music related products and services, Mac desktops, iPod, software, services and other hardware (Apple, Inc., 2014; GCEIP, 2014). 3.1 Bargaining Power of Buyers Communication Equipment Industry Buyer power is moderate. Apple communications equipment caters to individual buyers, but each buyer has little bargaining power as he/she bargains for him/herself alone. If the company loses just one consumer, the effect on the company will be insignificant. Collectively, however, buyer power may be more significant, as switching costs are low. Fixed line telecommunication devices have a low degree of differentiation and there is little innovation taking place in this area, for which reason buyers are sensitive to price levels and could easily transfer from one supplier to another. Apple’s major competitors in this market include Lenovo, Nokia, and Samsung (GCEIP, 2014; CEIPUK, 2014). Music and Video Industry The bargaining power of buyers is moderate. As with the communications equipment industry, there are many buyers in this market, thus reducing their bargaining...
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...in Bangladesh Managing Churn in a Hypercompetitive Market Managing Churn in a Hypercompetitive Market Submitted to Farhana Sehreen Lecturer Department of Marketing Jahangirnagar University Submitted by Belal Hasan ID no. 1336 Session: 2009-10 Department of Marketing Jahangirnagar University Date: 12 September, 2013 August 16, 2013 To Farhana Sehreen Lecturer Department of Marketing Jahangirnagar University Subject: Submission of internship proposal Sir, I am glad to submit the internship report proposal on “Managing the churn in hypercompetitive market in Telecom Industry” as a requirement of internship program for the fulfillment of BBA Program In this report I would like to focus on strategies and application, execution model, current attack and defense to hold their position in perspective to other operator. I would like to scrutinize collect information for the report. I hope that the preparation of the report will help me to acquire knowledge about real life practice and help me in future. I will try to enhance my knowledge and make satisfactory report. I shall be happy to provide with any explanative information and clarification that might require. I hope that my potentiality will reach up to the mark of your expectation. Yours Sincerely Belal Hasan Introduction “Churn” is a common phenomenon that occurs in telecom industry. By “Churn” we mean those customers, who will be leaving us in near future. If we are able...
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...173 Seth, Momaya, Gupta AN EXPLORATORY INVESTIGATION OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND RETENTION IN CELLULAR MOBILE COMMUNICATION Anita Seth Kiran Momaya H.M. Gupta Cellular mobile industry has undergone rapid changes as a result of liberalization and globalization. In such a ever changing scenario, expansion and maintaining the loyal customer base seems to be a great challenge for the mobile service providers. As a result of increased competition, customer loyalty and retention have become important goals for mobile service operators. Reacting to the pressures, most of the cellular mobile service providers are trying to attract subscribers by not only reducing their tariff rates but also giving attention to the quality of services delivered. In this context the present paper focuses on the customer loyalty and retention in cellular mobile communication. Literature review was carried out covering the theoretical and empirical work on the subject and exploring the relations with service quality. Exploratory interviews were conducted in order to gain practical insights of the subject. Based on the literature review and findings from the interviews, this paper presents a rich research agenda for further research. 1.0 INTRODUCTION T he forces of liberalization and globalization of telecommunication market have pressurized the companies to maintain their market share by focusing on retaining their current customers. They are being increasingly confronted with challenges to attract...
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...Promotion and Consumer Loyalty: A Study of Nigerian Tecommunication Industry Oyeniyi Omotayo Abstract In today’s competitive business world customers are considered to be kings. Customers have several choices to make among alternative products, and they exercise a high level of influence in the market with respect to product size, quality and price. Hence, it is important for producers to meet the needs of customers in order to stay competitive. One of the marketing communication tools that is used in attracting the attention of the customer and build their loyalty is sales promotion. The aim of this paper therefore is to determine the effect of sales promotion on customer loyalty in the telecommunication industry. In this study, the survey method was used in gathering information from the respondents. Simple random sampling was used to select a sample size of 310, while descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted with the aid of SPSS software. Producers spend a large part of their total marketing communication expenses on sales promotion. Hence, this paper attempts to find the effect of sales promotion on customer loyalty using a sample of customers of mobile telecommunication services. The paper found that, there is positive relationship between sales promotion and customer loyalty. More importantly, it was discovered that non-loyal customers are more prone to switch to competing products as a result of sales promotion than loyal customers. Key words: Sales...
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...Forces Article Assignment T-Mobile Turns an Industry on Its Ear The article I found relating to Porter’s Five Forces was about T-Mobile and how their rejected merger with AT&T has caused them to go against many of the previously accepted practices of the mobile carrier industry. This started in 2011 when the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department blocked AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile. After the deal was called off, AT&T owed T-Mobile a breakup fee worth $3 billion in cash and $1 billion in rights to wireless spectrum which has allowed to T-Mobile to expand their service to better compete with the three other major carriers. Since the failed merger, T-Mobile has become an agitator in the industry and has said they want to eliminate every pain point for consumers in the industry. One of the major issues in the mobile carrier industry is how much the four major carries (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile) have started to dominate the market, making it hard for smaller companies to penetrate the industry. Consumers have a strong brand loyalty towards the major carriers because of how much better their coverage and service compare to smaller firms in the industry. Smaller firms cannot expect to have the capital to match the network size of any of the four major carriers which can be a major deterrent for customers switching to their carrier. These four major carriers hold an absolute cost advantage over smaller firms...
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...Customer loyalty and the effect of switching costs as a moderator variable A case in the Turkish mobile phone market Serkan Aydin and Go¨khan O ¨ zer School of Business Administration, Gebze Institute of Technology, Gebze, Turkey, and O ¨ mer Arasil Telecommunications Authority, Ankara, Turkey Abstract Purpose – In the GSM mobile telephony sector, the main condition for protecting the subscriber base is to win customer loyalty, a key necessity for the maintenance of a brand’s life in the long term. To achieve this aim, customer satisfaction and trust must be measured and “switching costs” identified. The latter render subscribers’ preference for rival operators more expensive. In this connection, this paper’s aim is to measure the effects of customer satisfaction and trust on customer loyalty, and the direct and indirect effect of “switching cost” on customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach – The data set covered 1,662 mobile phone users in Turkey. The data were analyzed by moderated regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Findings – The findings of this study show that the switching cost factor directly affects loyalty, and has a moderator effect on both customer satisfaction and trust. Therefore, it plays a crucial role in winning customer loyalty. In short, it is a quasi moderator. However, switching costs was measured as a unidimensional factor, but switching costs in fact contains psychological, financial and procedural sub-dimensions. Therefore...
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...Threat of substitute products or services 1 1 2 2 2 3 4 5 IV. V. COMPARISON OF THE COMPETITIVE FORCES INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN TELECOMMUNICATION 1. Enterprise Resource Planning a. Telecom Billing System b. Grid Computing Service 2. Customer Relation Management 5 5 5 5 6 7 VI. CONCLUSION 7 I. Objective This report seeks to analyze in detail the current state of competition within the Singapore’s Telecommunications industry. The industry is analyzed based on Porter’s 5 forces model. The paper also aims to identify the key players within the forces. How IT/IS has been able to change the strength of each force is also demonstrated. II. Industry description Generally, telecommunication industry consists of fixed line telecommunication and wireless telecommunication services. Fixed line communication is defined as voice telephony and data transferring offers and broadband. Wireless telecommunication services include mobile phones, pagers and other wireless telecommunication services. The three leading telecommunication companies are Singapore Telecommunication Ltd (established in 1992), Mobile One Ltd (established in 1997) and StarHub Pte Ltd (established in 1998). From 2000, liberalization policy attracts more entrants into the market. Nevertheless, the industry is still shaped and influenced mainly by the big players. Hence, in this report, the analysis is based mainly on the behaviors of these...
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...electronics, computer software and personal computers. The company’s best-known hardware products include Macintosh computers, iPod, iPhone and the iPad. Apple Software includes the OSX system, iTunes media player and multiple creativity software. The company’s brand is known for its high level of design, ease of use, and now iCloud, operating in nearly 400 retail stores in 14 countries (apple.com). To better understand Apple’s positioning against the other players, our team has divided Apple Inc.’s line of business into regions and retail: Asia, Europe, Americas, Japan and Retail. PORTER’S FIVE FORCES Porter’s Five (some may argue 6+) model is an analysis tool that helps “determine industry profitability because they influence the price, cost and required investment of firms in an industry” (M. Porter). Rothaermal further argues that the model reflects the industry’s attractiveness. First image below shows the traditional Porter’s model with the 5 forces, where the image on the latter shows additional factors that may affect the firm’s profitability and attractiveness. Exhibit 1.1 Porter’s Original Five Forces Model (Strategic Management Insight) Exhibit 1.2 Porter’s “Five” Forces Model (Lecture 2, R. Herko) The following analysis is for the Asian region, including: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, New Zealand and Australia....
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