The Relationship between Customers’ Switching Cost and Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Satisfaction

Shueh-Chin Ting^*

Department of Education, National University of Tainan, Tainan City.

DOI: 10.4236/jssm.2014.74028                

Abstract

Past researches suggest that switching cost could retain customers and increase their repurchase intention; however, this study does not completely agree with this statement. By treating customers’ satisfaction as the moderating variable, this study attempts to identify the relationship between switching cost and customers’ repurchase intention. The research subjects of this study were consumers of mobile phone communication service in Taiwan; the customer satisfaction was divided into high, medium and low degrees. The results indicated that upon different degrees of customer satisfaction, there are different relationships between switching cost and customers’ repurchase intention. Specifically, with high or low customer satisfaction, there is no significant relationship between switching cost and customers’ repurchase intention. Only with medium customer satisfaction, there is a significant and positive relationship between switching cost and customers’ repurchase intention. Therefore, the enterprises should take care that customer satisfaction can not be too low; otherwise, only relying on switching cost, they will not be able to keep the customers.

Keywords

Consumer, Customer, Moderating, Repurchase Intention, Satisfaction, Switching Cost

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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