Mobile Users\' Switching Intention: A Comparative Study between Brazilian and German Markets

Informações

Código: MKT148
Divisão: MKT - Marketing
Tema de Interesse: Tema 05 - Marketing de Serviços e de Relacionamento

Autores

Rodrigo Ciaravolo Martins, Luis Fernando Hor-Meyll, Jorge Brantes Ferreira

Resumo

The Brazilian mobile telephone market can be considered a mature market, boastingmore than 100 lines per 100 inhabitants. The implementation of number portability wasconcluded in March 2009, thereby reducing switching barriers, increasing competition, andmaking the switching process among carriers easier. This study attempts to identify factorsthat influence the mobile consumer’s switching intention, and to compare the influence ofthese factors in both the Brazilian and German mobile markets. Performance is significantlyrelated to consumer satisfaction (Shin and Kim 2008). Fornell et al. (1996) defined perceivedvalue as the perceived quality relative to price. Marchetti and Prado (2004) considered theeconomic dimension as the relationship between perceived costs and benefits. Turel andSerenko (2006) demonstrated strong correlation between perceived value and consumersatisfaction. Jones, Mothersbaugh, and Beatty (2000) defined switching barriers as factors thatmay make it more difficult/costly to switch providers, including lock-in techniques. Oliver(1996) defined loyalty as a deep commitment to repurchase a service in the future. Gerpott,Rams, and Schindler (2001) identified relationship between satisfaction and loyalty in theGerman mobile market. In US, Lim, Widdows, and Park (2006) studied the relationshipbetween satisfaction and loyalty to the supplier. Kim et al. (2004) identified a positiverelationship between switching barriers and customer retention in Korea. Switching costs wasfound to have a mediating effect between satisfaction and re-purchase intent (de Matos,Henrique and de Rosa 2007). A survey was conducted on two convenience samples (202users in Brazil and 200 in Germany). Data was collected on a website where the questionnairewas published. A link leading to the questionnaire was sent via e-mail to undergraduate andgraduate student discussion groups in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro) and Germany (Ingolstadt).Structural equation modeling suggests that, in both markets, customer satisfaction is animportant factor with respect to switching intention. In the Brazilian market, the influence ofperceived service quality is higher than in Germany, while Germans consider perceived priceto be more important than do Brazilian users. The results also suggest that perceived servicequality and perceived price rank higher in the German market, while Brazilians still perceivethe existence of high switching barriers. There were no significant differences in perceptionsof German and Brazilian users in relation to customer lock-in strategies, despite the differencein stages of maturity between the two markets.

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