Doppelerfolg für den Lehrstuhl für Marketing und Innovation. Die gemeinsam von Sabine Moser, Prof. Dr. Jan H. Schumann, Prof. Dr. Florian von Wangenheim, Fabian Uhrich und Felix Frank verfasste Forschungsarbeit "The Effect of a Service Provider’s Competitive Market Position on Churn Among Flat-Rate Customers" wurde ebenfalls im Journal of Service Research zu Veröffentlichung angenommen. Das Journal of Service Research ist ein weltweit führendes Journal im Bereich Dienstleistungsmarketing und ist im VHB-Ranking (VHB-JOURQUAL 3) als A-Journal eingestuft.
Moser, S., Schumann, J. H., Von Wangenheim, F., Uhrich, F., & Frank, F. (forthcoming). The Effect of a Service Provider’s Competitive Market Position on Churn Among Flat-Rate Customers. Journal of Service Research. (VHB3: A)
Abstract
Flat rate pricing, as opposed to charging customers for actual usage, dominates many service industries (e.g., telecommunications, health clubs, music streaming), and customers often express a flat-rate bias and choose flat rates even if a pay-per-use tariff would be less expensive for them. However, evidence of the effect of this bias on churn is mixed. The competitive market position of a service provider may represent a relevant contingency factor related to this effect; building on attribution theory, the current study predicts that customers attribute their flat-rate bias differently, depending on service providers’ strategic positioning, which leads to varying churn behavior. A survival analysis of approximately two years’ transactional data gathered from 21,490 customers of a premium Internet service provider affirms that a flat-rate bias leads to churn in the premium segment. Two experimental studies show that customers of premium service providers attribute their flat-rate bias more externally and exhibit lower fairness perceptions but increased churn intentions compared with low-cost customers who make internal attributions and who thus have less negative perceptions and lower churn intentions. Therefore, premium service managers must proactively manage customers who exhibit flat-rate biases to prevent their negative reactions. Low-cost providers generally have less need for such action and can benefit from flat rates without risking increased churn, despite the higher price sensitivity of their customers.