Authors: Annie H. Liu; Mark P. Leach
How can business service suppliers build exit barriers without ?hard assets? such as transaction specific investments? What strategic actions should service suppliers pursue in order to lock in their buyers for the long haul? The current study suggests that through strategic customer value management, service suppliers are able to mentally create high costs associated with switching, and hence, establish exit barriers for their customers.Through an extensive literature review, qualitative interviews, and an empirical investigation, the current study examines three dimensions of customer value and their relationships to switching costs. The findings show that value from relational / support services and economic value exert strong positive impact on customers? perceptions of switching costs. However, the result does not provide sufficient support for the relationship between value of core / technical service and switching costs. Actionable strategies are discussed to simultaneously manage various aspects of value in order to build exit barriers.
Journal: ( – )
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Publish Year: 2003
Conference: Lugano, Switzerland (2003)