Thesis
Determinants of customer satisfaction and retention in the cellular phone market of Malaysia
Southern Cross University, Graduate College of Management
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
2001
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Abstract
Facing changes and challenges in the information technology environment, and increasing competitive pressures, many companies in the telecommunications industry have to reposition their resources of people, equipment, and network architecture. In the Malaysian telecommunications industry, a diverse set of customer needs and markets has evolved resulting in customers switching services. Thus regulators and telecommunications managers recognize the importance of customer satisfaction and retention but are not sure how to incorporate these variables into their decisions, how to model them and how to link them. Thus, the research problem investigated in this research is: how are customer satisfaction and retention constructed and related? The answer to this question is important for academics and managers alike.
A two-stage methodological approach was used to investigate this research problem. The first stage began with the review of the literature, interviews with experts, regulatory and users of the telecommunications services. This stage one established three issues pertaining to the research problem:
RI: How are satisfaction and retention constructed?
R2: How does the conjirmation/disconjirmation of satisfaction affect retention?
R3: How do demographics affect satisfaction and retention?
In stage two of the research, a personally administered survey of 500 customers of eight network cellular phone service operators, with a response rate of 61 per cent, provided evidence about these research issues. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and multivariate analysis of covariance techniques. In summary, the findings of this research determined:
• a set of dimensions for cellular phone service;
• the use of attitude-level performance as a measure of overall satisfaction;
• the use of attribute-level performance as a measure of overall retention;
• the use of the performance level of service as a measure of satisfaction and not confirmation/disconfirmation levels;
• the effects of demographics on expectations, performance levels of service;
• the effects of demographics on satisfaction; and
• the effect of demographics on overall retention
The major contributions of this research are identified in chapter 5. This research confirms and demonstrates the importance of performance level of service as a determinant of satisfaction. This research also clarifies the literature that asserts the attribute-level performance, overall satisfaction and overall retention are symmetrical and linear. More precisely, this research is one of the few studies to demonstrate empirically the link between overall satisfaction and overall retention. Additionally, this research confirms the effects of demographics on expectations, performance levels of service and satisfaction, and for the first time confirms the effects of demographics on overall retention. This research provides managers with practical directions to determining service attributes to allow them to focus on enhancing customer overall satisfaction and retention.
Implications for further research include the application of the research's objectives to other services, using longitudinal research methodology so that dynamics could be fully captured and measuring the life time value of the customer groups through demographics such as age and income changes.
Details
- Title
- Determinants of customer satisfaction and retention in the cellular phone market of Malaysia
- Creators
- Norizan Kassim
- Contributors
- Chad Perry (Supervisor) - Southern Cross University
- Awarding Institution
- Southern Cross University; Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Theses
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
- Publisher
- Southern Cross University, Graduate College of Management
- Number of pages
- xiv, 404
- Identifiers
- 991013312528702368
- Copyright
- © Norizan M. Kassim 2001
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Business, Law and Arts
- Resource Type
- Thesis