Switching Service Providers: Reasons, Service Types, and Sequences
通过调查法验证了Keaveney关于更换服务提供商原因的经典分类，发现不同服务类型（如地点依赖型与非地点依赖型）的更换原因频率差异显著，并探讨了更换事件的顺序与原因之间的关系。
In Keaveney.s (1995) landmark study on the reasons for switching service providers, data were gathered using critical incident technique (CIT); here the original findings are tested using survey method. Keaveney.s typology of reasons for switching is supported across a range of categories but, in this new study, the reasons for switching occur at markedly different frequencies than in her study. A method effect could explain the disparity between the current and previous work on this subject. Extending Keaveney.s work, services that are delivered at a specific location are compared with services that lack this location constraint. In located services, such as restaurants, about half of all switching is based on access to the service; in non-located services, such as credit cards, access problems are minor and service failure is often the reason for switching. The orders of events, or sequences, involved in switching are also examined; different sequences are related to different sets of reasons for switching. These findings raise concern about using CIT to provide frequencies, initiate a debate about useful service segmentation, and indicate that attempts to increase customer retention in located services have limited potential because the reasons for switching are difficult to change in this type of service.