Multichannel Service Providers' Strategy: Understanding the Customers' Switching and Free-riding Behavior

• Main Authors: Yu-Tsun Chou, 周昱存
• Other Authors: Hung-Chang Chiu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16739054128047079189

碩士 === 東吳大學 === 企業管理學系 === 99 === Since the advent of the Web, multichannel customer management has become an issue for serious discussion. How a retailer integrates the Internet into its retailing process, and how it coordinates offline and online strategic decisions, can impact its performance in a service multichannel. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore the applicability of a theoretical framework, push-pull-mooring (PPM), for understanding customers’ switching behaviors, and concern the issue of constraint factors avoided customer switching. Survey data from 530 Taiwanese customers (response rate of 94%) were used to consult the Web sites of the retailers before purchasing. The results of this study are twofold. Firstly, online channel perceived risk, online channel switching barrier have significant directly impacts on cross-channel free riding; company perceived risk, company switching barrier and another company attractiveness have significant impacts on switch. Secondly, company switching barrier have strongly negative moderate impact on the relationship between company perceived risks/another company attractive and switching. On the other hand, even if the current company perceived risks or another company attractive are strong, a customer may not switch if there are company factors mooring him or her to the current service provider. Above results further showed us the importance of understanding the company mooring variables. Managerial implications and further directions were then discussed.