Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
EXISTENT FRAMEWORKS OF CONSUMER SWITCHING 
Four models shall be examined briefly in this section: Keaveney (1995), Morgan and Dev (1994), Bansal 
and Taylor (1999a) and Bansal et al. (2005). Keaveney’s (1995) model was exploratory. In the concluding remarks, 
this author hoped that the study and its findings should stimulate interest and provide a direction for more work in 
the area of consumer switching. As a result of 45 interviews, Keaveney (1995) developed the first model that 
predicted consumer-switching behavior in the service industry. This model identified the possible causal factors and 
proposed the interacting factors among them, this research suggested that the antecedents of consumer switching 
include price, convenience, service failure and response to service failure, ethical issues and service switching costs. 
Morgan and Dev (1994) also suggested a model for retail service switching. These authors specifically 
examined the lodging sector. Their focus was on three broad factors summarized as: 
Context, Control and 
Consumer
, all with several variables. In the analysis of their findings, these authors found that under 
Context
, 
destination variable played the greatest role in consumer switching of service providers. Under 
Control
these authors 
found that special deal was most important and finally, when they found that under the category of 
Consumer
, 
family was a major influence when switching service providers.
Bansal and Taylor (1999a) took a different dimension in examining the models of consumer switching. 
These authors, unlike Keaveney (1995) who carried out an exploratory study, aimed at developing a theoretically 
grounded model of consumer switching of services. This model 
“Service Provider Switching Model” 
(SPSM) used 
constructs suggested in the prior marketing research, and applied the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) of Azjen 
(1991) as the integrating ground for the constructs proposed to influence switching. These authors also aimed at 
extending the attitude models to explore the relationship between general attitudes (service quality) and consumer 
behavior (switching). These authors found several factors that affect consumers’ decision making significantly when 
faced with the decision of whether or not to switch service providers. They found that service quality and 
satisfaction play a great role in switching but attitude was the most influential determinant of switching. Switching 
costs was also found to be important.
In a bid to further understand consumer switching behavior, Bansal et al. (2005) presented a model to unify 
the process of consumer switching. In this study, the authors chose to liken consumer switching to human migration. 
Utilizing migration theories from the discipline of human geography, these authors not only defined and clarified the 
similarity among several terms in migration and switching, they also utilized the Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) to 
identify moderating relationships among the drivers of service provider switching. The model was further used to 
suggest new predictors of switching. Further, this model segmented migrants/switchers into refugees (consumers 
forced to switch), nomads (consumers that keep moving from one service provider to another), return migrants and 
people with multi-residence or referred to as polygamous buyers. The model also examined the cultural implications 
of both switched from and switched to service providers. 

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