Positive vs. negative switching barriers: the influence of service consumers' need for variety

• In this study, we deal with the existing debate related to the establishment of switching barriers retaining customers in the relationship with a provider. In particular, we demonstrate that ‘positive’ switching barriers (relational benefits) play a greater role that the ‘negative’ ones (switching costs and availability and attractiveness of other providers' offers) in determining customer satisfaction and retention. On the other hand, we include customers' need for variety in the proposed model, in order to demonstrate that a higher level of this psychological trait will lead to a lower perception of the existence of switching barriers. The hypotheses proposed have been tested for a services context on a sample of 800 individuals, using the technique ‘Partial Least Squares’ (PLS). Our findings lead to some interesting managerial implications.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.