Determinants of Switching Behavior of Mobile Service Users: With Reference to Students of the State Universities in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Mobile phones have evolved as important devises for human daily lives with many user friendly applications. The new era of the Smart Phones made telecommunication industry highly competitive. In Sri Lanka, Mobile telecommunication industry is one of the competitive industry consisting of five major service providers. In Sri Lanka, Mobile penetration has historically been relatively low compared with other more developed Asian markets but recently it has reached up with penetration level 105% by 2015 (Budde, Telecommunication research site,2015). Liberalization undoubtedly benefited the telecommunication market and since it’s reaching the mature stage, five service providers may face a bigger challenge in maintaining their profitability. This could be result in consolidation in mobile telecommunication market. Knowing about this uncertain future, all five operators are very much keen on sustaining their existing customers while acquiring new ones. The main objective of this research is to find the factors that influence the consumers in switching their service provider. The research will be descriptive research and will go with stratified probability sampling technique. For this study, researcher selected Sri Lankan state university students as the population. Out of 15 universities 3 have been selected using random sampling and data have been collected randomly from the selected three universities. Data collection was done through an online questionnaire. Questionnaire link was sent via mail and face book links to the selected sample. In case of not having mail or Facebook facility, members was given a printed questioner. Analysis of data, found that price, Inconvenience situations, Core service failure, Development of technology have significant impact on consumer switching behavior in mobile service Sector in Sri Lanka. And Switching cost also has an impact on switching behavior. Failed service encounter, competition and Response to failure service do not have an impact on consumer switching behavior.