Study On Mechanism Of Switching Barriers On Customer Loyalty

With the increasingly fierce competition and the higher customer cultivating cost in the consumer market,the developing and maintaining loyal customer has become the enterprise's important strategy to win the market.The traditional view is that customer satisfaction will create customer loyalty.However,some studies have shown:the satisfied customers will also drain,many dissatisfied customers remain current customer relationships.Therefore,customer satisfaction is not sufficient to explain the full meaning of customer loyalty.Some scholars found that.switching barriers can explain customer loyalty more powerfully than customer satisfaction.But the people put too much attention on customer satisfaction,while ignoring the switching barriers in the role of customer loyalty mechanism.The mechanism of switching barriers on customer loyalty in the academic has not yet been fully excavated.Academically,customer relationship management research originated from the United States and other developed Western countries,whether the concept and theory can migrate to other countries and the cultural environment or not has yet to be tested.The mechanism of switching barriers on customer loyalty,empirical research did not see the evidence in the domestic.A number of studies just based on the preliminary investigation or perceptual judgment.So based on foreign research results in the context of Chinese culture,empirical research on the mechanisms of swtiching barriers on customer loyalty help chinese emterprises to generalize the law of loyal consumer and determine the correct marketing strategy.The theoretical model of the paper is based on theory research of predecessors,focus on the mechanism of switching barriers on customer loyalty.We establish structural equation modeling for the mechanism of switching barriers on customer loyalty,analyze the direct and indirect effects of two dimensions of switching barriers on two dimensions of customer loyalty.In the model,switching barriers will be converted into negative and positive dimensions,customer loyalty is divided into behavior loyalty and attitudinal loyalty dimensions,and study how the two dimensions of switching barriers have a direct role on two dimensions of customer loyalty,and how they through the intermediary variables including relationship trust,customer satisfaction and relationship commitment have indirect effect on two dimensions of customer loyalty.The empirical analysis of this paper consists of twostages.The first stage is EFA., which aims to filtrate the measurement items of all variables and form the ultimate survey questionnaire through the analysis of the measurement validity and credibility.The second stage is CFA.,which aims to unveal how the two dimensions of switching barriers have a direct and indirect role on two dimensions of customer loyalty through the structural analysis of the theoretical model.After the empirical analysis of 613 valid samples,it can be concluded that:(1)The role of switching barriers on customer loyalty is a complex process.Switching barriers not only have a significant direct role on customer loyalty,but also through relationships trust,customer satisfaction and commitment have their indirect effect.(2)The different dimensions of switching barriers have different effects on the different dimensions of customer loyalty.The negative switching barriers have a positive role on bahavioral loyalty and have a negative role on attitudinal loyal,the positive switching barriers generate positive role on the both.The result show certain theoretical significance that switching barriers and customer loyalty are distincted into different dimensions.(3)Customer satisfaction plays intermediary role on the relationship between switching barriers and customer loyalty.Customer satisfaction and switching barriers have a interactive role on the customer loyalty,but customer satisfaction's intermediary roles in negative switching barriers and positive barriers on bahavioral and attitudinal loyalty are different.Customer satisfaction makes the indirect connection of the negative switching barriers and bahavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty respective to be weakened and enhanced;Customer satisfaction makes relations of positive switching barriers and bahavioral and attitudinal loyalty both to be strengthened.(4)Relationship commitments play intermediary role on the relationship between switching barriers and customer loyalty. Relationship commitments makes the indirect connection of the negative switching barriers and bahavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty respective to be weakened and enhanced; they makes relations of positive switching barriers and bahavioral and attitudinal loyalty both to be strengthened.(5)Relationship trust plays intermediary role on the relationship between switching barriers and customer loyalty.Relationship trust makes the indirect connection of the negative switching barriers and bahavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty respective to be weakened and enhanced;they makes relations of positive switching barriers and bahavioral and attitudinal loyalty both to be strengthened.The innovation of the paper include:(1)constructing a integrate model of switching barriers on customer loyalty.(2)empirical finding that two demensions of switching barriers has different effects on two demensions of customer loyalty.(3)relationship trust and commitment being introduced into the model,they having moderative effect in relation of swtching barriers and customer loyalty.