The relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intention with moderating effects of switching barriers

Abstract

Service quality and customer satisfaction are believed to affect customer behavior. On that basis, one of the main research focus in marketing field is to get a better understanding in the dynamic relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction, and their impact on customer behavior. Although this research area has been examined quite extensively, the presence and importance of switching barriers in predicting customer behavior are poorly understood in pay television industry. This thesis aims to explain how the concept of switching barriers moderates the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer’s behavioral intention. In addition to that, this research also aims to determine service quality dimensions for the current research setting. Based on the theory of social exchange and theory of planned behavior, a framework depicting the interrelationships among service quality, customer satisfaction, switching barriers and behavioral intention is proposed. The research framework predicts the main effects of main variables and moderating effects of switching barriers. The data were collected among pay TV customers from the state of Johor in two phases. The first phase involved stratified random sampling method which yielded 32 responses, while the second phase involved convenience sampling which yielded 213 responses. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Seven dimensions of service quality were identified: tangibles, reliability, content quality, customer service, convenience, price and interactivity. The findings supported the direct relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intention. Most importantly, there are two novel and important findings in this study that add to the body of literature: first, two components of switching barriers which is switching costs and attractiveness of alternatives do not moderate the relationships between customer satisfaction and behavioral intention; and second, the newly introduced switching barriers’ component, which is the social ties moderate the relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention, and positive recommendation. An important implication of this study is that social ties act as an important factor that will glue customer to stay with an organization.