Social Influences in Consumers’ Mobile Phone Switching Behavior

Mobile phones have become a commodity and consumers switch their phones increasingly often. Earlier research suggests that social influences have a role in mobile phone switching, but the literature does not well explain what the underlying dynamics behind it are. We address this gap and report a longitudinal study on the social influences in consumers’ mobile phone switching behavior. Theoretically the paper is founded on switching behavior and more specifically on the push-pull-mooring framework that has been recently used to explain consumers’ switching behavior related to different products and services. Our mostly qualitative survey data was collected annually among Finnish university students during 2012-2014. While mobile phone users primarily base their switch decisions on rational reasons, indications of social influences on their switching behavior were discovered. Most interestingly, respondents seemed to recognize the role of social influences in their past behavior, but did not connect this to their future decisions

Opportunities and Risks of Blockchain Technologies – A Research Agenda

Blockchain technologies offer new open source-based opportunities for developing new types of digital platforms and services. While research on the topic is emerging, it has this far been predominantly focused to technical and legal issues. To broaden our understanding of blockchain technology based services and platforms, we build on earlier literature on payments and payment platforms and propose a research agenda divided into three focal areas of 1) organizational issues; 2) issues related to the competitive environment; and 3) technology design issues. We discuss several salient themes within each of these areas, and derive a set of research question for each theme, highlighting the need to address both risks and opportunities for users, as well as different types of stakeholder organizations. With this research agenda, we contribute to the discussion on future avenues for Information Systems research on blockchain technology based platforms and services

The roles of social and network effects in consumer´s mobile service platform switching

Objectives of the Study: Mobile phones have become a commodity and simultaneously the modern touchscreen smartphones penetrate the market. Consumers switch their phones increasingly often, so the reasons behind the switching behavior matter. The academic research of the mobile phone switching factors is limited. Earlier related research findings suggest that the social effects have a role in mobile phone switching. What is this role like, and furthermore, what is the underlying dynamics behind it. This thesis is attempting to fill a gap in the academic research, and add in knowledge of the roles of social environment influences for a consumer´s behavior. Academic background and methodology: This is a longitudinal, partly inductive analysis, combining quantitative and qualitative elements. The theoretical grounding is built on an academic literature review. An empirical survey data collected in Finland by Professor Virpi Tuunainen, at the Aalto University, School of Business during 2012-2014, is used for the analysis. A modified framework for mobile service platform switching is built on the theoretical grounding, and is used to organize the questionnaire data. The recognized survey data constructs are organized for relevant switch variables, and the primary and the supporting analysis are made. Qualitative and quantitative data are compared in respect with each others, and analyzed separately as well. Findings and conclusions: Obvious positive impacts of social norms on the consumer´s switching behavior were discovered, and their role has become more important. The consumers recognize the role of social impact in their past behavior rather well, but don´t see this role in their future decisions, which indicates it is partly hidden. Weaker signals of peer pressure were found, though also their role is increasing. Deliberate, compelling peer influencing in one´s mobile service platform switching decisions is still rare. Network effects and social factors are manifesting positive interdependence hence a mobile service platform with proper design can exploit the role of social effects in the mobile service consumers´ switching behavior

EXPLORING THE ROLE OF SWITCHING COSTS IN EXPLAINING MICRO-GROUP ADHERENCE FROM THE SOCIO-TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE

Micro-group is a commonly used function provided by most of China micro-blog platforms though which friends or people with common interests can share conversations like an online community. In this study, we draw from established socio-technical theory in Information Systems to develop an integrated model of customers’ adherence to micro-groups from the view of switching cost. The results of the empirical analysis confirmed that switching cost increases when the user perceived that the system was secure, full-functional or when there is a high level of network size, information value and network status. In the same way, greater switching cost was also found to have a positive influence on user adherence to micro-groups. Based on the findings, strategies to help micro-group site develop an enhanced “lock-in” effect are proposed

Understanding Customer Switching Behaviour in the Retail Banking Sector: The Case of Nigeria and the Gambia

This thesis examines customer switching behaviour in Nigeria and Gambia, focusing on the retail banking sector. The study’s key objective is to provide new knowledge on customer banking behaviour in the retail banking sector. The study is grounded in Bansal et al.’s (2005) push-pull-mooring model. A qualitative method was employed in the data collection, incorporating a triangulation approach, whereby direct observations were combined with thematic interviews and focus group discussions. The intention behind this method was to increase the validity of the research results. Ultimately, the study findings indicate significant factors and subfactors influencing customer switching behaviour in the retail banking sector. The results are categorised as push, pull, or mooring factors. It identifies seven push factors with thirteen subfactors, four pull factors with ten subfactors, and six mooring factors with three subfactors. The study’s significant contribution to existing knowledge of services marketing is the identification of new and emerging constructs, thus extending the existing knowledge in the literature. The study’s findings support numerous results of prior relevant research, while some findings disagree with those of previous research. Furthermore, the new constructs that emerge from this research are highly relevant to today’s consumers. For example, factors like banking products, perceived knowledge of banking products, perceived relative security of banking products, satisfaction with the current bank, emotions (e.g., regret or anger), liquidity challenges, bank staff career development prospects, and ethical banking issues are the study’s unique contributions to the push factors and subfactors. In addition, the emerging pull factors and subfactors include technological advancement, coronavirus pandemic-induced switching, a bank’s physical appearance, positive banking expectations, a bank’s relative proximity, expected switching benefits, perceived usefulness of a bank’s digital platforms, perceived ease of banking transactions, personalised banking offerings, and repositioning banking business models. Lastly, the new mooring factors and subfactors identified in this study are inertia, changes in customer needs or tastes, involuntary switching, and bank responsiveness. Consequently, the author has developed a framework/model based on the findings of this study. The new framework/model presented comprehensive results with practical implications and a valuable contribution to the current knowledge of customer switching behaviour

The Evolving Brand-Consumer Relationship - The Impact of Business Cycles, Digital Platforms, and New Advertising Technologies

Unprecedented technological progress and pronounced business cycles were the defining factors of the past two decades and disrupted consumers’ everyday lives as well as brands’ established modus operandi. For example, the severe global financial crisis and the subsequent European debt crisis forced many consumers to tighten their belts and change what, where, and how they shop. As a consequence, long established relationships with brands were put to the test as consumers adopted and habituated new shopping behaviors that not only shaped their purchases during the recessions but even beyond (Lamey 2014; Lamey et al. 2007). On the technological side, digital platforms such as AirBnb and Uber unhinged entire industries (Eckhardt et al. 2019; Parker, Van Alstyne, and Choudary 2016). At the same time, digital platforms have allowed brands to be consumers’ constant companions in various areas of their life such as money management, personal health, exercising, nutrition, and more (Ramaswamy and Ozcan 2016, 2018). Technological progress has also produced ever more sophisticated advertising tools that allow brands to target consumers with pinpoint accuracy and allow any brand irrespective of its advertising budget to address their specific (niche) target consumers using highly engaging ad formats such as online video advertising (Anderson 2006; Bergemann and Bonatti 2011; Van Laer et al. 2014). Evidently, these fundamental forces—business cycles, digital platforms, and new advertising technologies—have substantially affected consumers, brands, and their relationship. In three essays, my co-authors and I show empirically, experimentally, and conceptually how brands and consumers have reacted and adjusted to these changes and how their relationship thus evolved. In the first essay, we find that while business cycles put established consumer-brand relationships to the test, brands remain important to consumers even in recessions. They adjust their shopping strategies to allow themselves to keep consuming branded products, for example by switching to cheaper outlets or buying on promotion. The second essay shows that digital platforms are a powerful tool that allows brands to create and orchestrate superior value for consumers and thus become increasingly influential in their daily lives. We discuss how this development profoundly elevates the brand-consumer relationship. The third essay, presents insights into skippable ads, an advertising format specific to digital channels. It transforms consumers’ traditional role in the advertising context from a captive audience to an empowered one that is granted the option to skip ads. My results show that, counter-intuitively, this is not only perceived positively by consumers but may disrupt their advertising viewing experience. Thus, I present strategies for advertisers that mitigate the adverse effects of skippable ads and improve branding

Engagement on Digital Platforms: A Theoretical Perspective

The new business models enabled by digital platforms and the ecosystems built around them drive the most profound change in the global macroeconomic environment today. User engagement plays a crucial role in value creation for platform business models. Although Information Systems (IS) literature has started examining this key concept, it presents diverse and inconsistent conceptualizations, resulting in an incomplete nomological network of engagement with important antecedents, consequences, and mechanisms left largely unexamined. This study aims to build a theory of engagement for digital platforms. To achieve this goal, we have provided a coherent definition and a preliminary typology in this extended abstract. We will construct a nomological network of engagement in our follow-up study

Theory borrowing in IT-rich contexts : lessons from IS strategy research

While indigenous theorizing in information systems has clear merits, theory borrowing will not, and should not, be eschewed given its appeal and usefulness. In this article, we aim at increasing our understanding of modifying of borrowed theories in IT-rich contexts. We present a framework in which we discuss how two recontextualization approaches of specification and distinction help with increasing the IT-richness of borrowed constructs and relationships. In doing so, we use several illustrative examples from information systems strategy. The framework can be used by researchers as a tool to explore the multitude of ways in which a theory from another discipline can yield the understanding of IT phenomena