Although the relationship marketing literature acknowledges the importance of switching costs for increasing customer retention in general, little is known about its relevance in industrial markets. In particular, it is unclear whether switching costs and its dimensions impact relevant behavioral outcomes of buyer-seller relationships in business-to-business (B2B) markets. Against this background, our research intends to make two main contributions: Since we assume differential effects for different types of switching costs, our research first explores the dimensions of switching costs for the B2B domain. Second, it tests the relative impact of the dimensions of switching costs on business customers’ actual purchase behavior. Results suggest that switching costs in B2B settings are a multi-faceted construct, including (i) procedural, (ii) financial, and (iii) relational switching costs. Moreover, we find relational switching costs to be most important for securing B2B buyer-seller relationships since they impact a customer’s (a) share-of-wallet, (b) cross buying behavior, and (c) actual switching behavior. While procedural switching costs only influence share-of-wallet, financial switching costs solely impact customer’s cross-buying behavior across a firm’s product and services categories. These findings contribute to a better understanding about how to secure B2B buyer-seller relationships.

The purpose of this study was to understand interrelationships among switching costs, customer satisfaction, and switching intent in a family restaurant. Based on a total of 427 customers obtained from empirical research, this study reviewed the reliability and fitness of the research model and verified a total of five hypotheses using the Amos program. The hypothesized relationships in the model were tested simultaneously by using a structural equation model (SEM). The proposed model provided an adequate fit to the data, χ2=137.881 (df=50); p〈 .001; CMIN/df 2.758; GFI= .947; AGFI= .919, NFI= .965; IFI= .978; TLI= .970; CFI= .978; RMR= .047; RMSEA= .064. The results showed that switching cost (β= .123) in a family restaurant had a positive (+) influence upon customer satisfaction. Further, switching cost had a significantly negative (-) effect on switching intent (β= -.414). In addition, there were moderating effects related to customer knowledge and variety seeking orientation in terms of the causal relationships between switching costs, customer satisfaction, and switching intent. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

This study examines the relationships and the impacts of service quality, customer satisfaction and switching costs on customer loyalty of e-banking in commercial banks. This study uses questionnaires with 7-point Likert scale to collect data from 227 e-banking users, who are mainly students and paid employees in Hanoi City, Vietnam. The collected data are analyzed by using multivariate linear regression method. The results show that all five factors of service quality in e-banking – reliability, responsiveness, service capacity, empathy and tangibility – have positive correlations with customer satisfaction. Among these determinants, service capacity and tangibility have the strongest impact. It means that, by increasing the quality of their services through five above factors, especially through improving capacity and tangibility, commercial banks can satisfy their customer better. In addition, customer satisfaction is strongly and positively correlated to customer loyalty. It means that, if customers are satisfied with e-banking services of one bank, they not only continue to do more businesses with this bank, but also recommend this bank to other people. Lastly, customer loyalty also has a strong and positive correlation with switching costs, which means customers tend to be loyal to one bank if the barriers to switching banks increase.

항만 간 경쟁이 심화되면서 기존 선사들의 이탈을 방지하고, 신규 선사를 유치하기 위한 새로운 마케팅 전략과 기존의 핵심서비스와 다른 차별화된 수단이 필요하게 되었다. 부가서비스와 보상프로그램의 체계를 살펴본 후, 이들 변수가 고객유지에 대한 관점에서 관계결속에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 알아보았다. 또한 기존에 소비재시장에서 이루어진 차별화된 서비스 제공이 컨테이너터미널 대상으로 산업재시장에서는 어떠한 영향을 미치는지에 대하여 살펴보았다. 컨테이너터미널을 이용하는 고객들을 심리적 행동관점에서 살펴보았다. 이를 바탕으로 공급사슬에서 발생하는 혜택과 보상이 전환비용과 관계결속에 미치는 영향을 구조방정식모형으로 제시하였다. 제안된 연구모형을 컨테이너 터미널의 이용자를 대상으로 실증 분석하여 시사점을 도출하였다.