Staying the Consumption Course: Exploring the Individual Lock-in Process in Service Relationships

Staying the Consumption Course: Exploring the Individual Lock-in Process in Service Relationships Benjamin Krischan Schulte develops a process-model of consumer lock-in in service relationships by connecting three areas of research: path dependence, consumer behavior and service relationship marketing. He defines consumer lock-in as a situation of a potentially unaware inability to switch from or exit a consumption process due to entrenchment with increasing barriers on the individual and/or social level. Switching barriers are elaborated as consumer lock-in mechanisms. The resulting process model is outlined and empirically examined in an explorative panel study of a service relationship process in higher education. The authors findings support the presence of consumer lock-in in services as an idiosyncratic process of gradual entrapment. The phenomenon has relevance for researchers and practitioners in complex service relationships, where lock-in was found to be a likely occurrence but difficult to grasp. Autor: Benjamin Krischan Schulte Wydawnictwo: Springer Rok wydania: 2015 Okładka: miękka Liczba stron: 228 Wymiary: 14.8 x 21 x 1.4 cm Ilustracje: 37 Tables, black and white; 28 Illustrations, black and white; XVII, 228 p. 28 illus. Język: angielski ISBN: 9783658087876