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CHAPTER -1
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
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CHAPTER: 1
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
1.1 INTRODUCTION
There are many changes which marketers have to notice in the market place,
especially increased competition and customers’ new preferences. Marketers are more
and more concerned about the severe competition resulting from product similarity
and large numbers of competitive brands in the same market. The growing intensity of
competition pushes companies to study their competitors, and most important, to
understand their customers including both existing and potential ones.
Probably, during recent years, one of the most concerned behavioral changes among
consumers is the increasing willingness to try new products (Bates, 1998)1. In order to
prevent customers switching to other brands, companies consider that the
improvement of customers’ satisfaction is an important solution. Companies tend to
maintain their existing customers when they are creating more new customers, and
they try to increase their customer loyalty through various loyalty programs.
Mean while, marketers are trying to understand why consumers switch from one
brand to another, how marketing tools such as promotional tools and different kinds
of advertisements will affect consumers’ brand choice behaviors, and how consumers
will respond to these marketing tools.
Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world.2
Particularly, the cellular services industry in India has grown at a scorching pace in
the last ten years, to become one of the fastest growing mobile services market in the
world3. In recent years, the Indian telecom industry has witnessed phenomenal
growth. A conducive business environment, favourable demographic outlook and the
political stability enjoyed by the country have contributed to the growth of the
industry. India achieved the distinction of having the world's lowest call rates (2–3 US
cents), the fastest sale of million mobile phones (1 week), the world's cheapest mobile
handset (USD 19) and the world's most affordable colour phone (USD 31).4
The Indian telecom sector particularly, witnessed aggressive growth during the last
two years, emerging as a global benchmark for other developed countries as well. All
3
major international operators are exploring opportunities to make inroads into the
Indian telecommunication sector, both for the vast customer base as well as to
leverage on the low cost outsourcing model which India has been successful in
pioneering. The regulatory environment in India has been extremely supportive to the
telecos companies due to which they have achieved such phenomenal growth in the
past years. The industry has recently introduced MNP, 3G and BWA which is
expected to have a significant impact on the sector and its growth in the next few
years. The Indian telecommunication industry is at the brink of entering a fresh round
of growth, to be stimulated by the launch of wireless data services. The policy makers
and the private players have successfully come together with various initiatives to
ensure that the industry continues to remain a shining star for India.
Mobile service is one of the fastest growing industries in India. With the economy
opening up, competition in this sector is increasing. The entry of private companies
promoted the use of cellular phones in the country. Today, it is buyers market in the
case of mobile services providers must understand the customers’ perception about
the company & its various offers. Increase in demand and the poor quality of existing
telecommunication services led mobile service providers to find out ways to improve
the quality of service and to support more users in their systems. Many private service
providers have entered in this line, which has brought heavy competition in the
market. GSM service providers announce new rates and incentives on weekly basis,
hoping to entice new subscribers and to lure subscribers away from the competition.
The extent of rivalry is reflected in the deluge of advertisements for wireless service
in the daily newspaper and other mass media.
For providers, increased customer churn out has resulted in rising customer
acquisition costs and lower average monthly billings. It also has translated into a
renewed interest in customer satisfaction and retention, since it costs more for a
Telecom company to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. While the
fundamentals of pricing, customer service, service quality, and marketing play an
ongoing role in keeping customers happy. GSM service providers need to proactively
identify high-value customers who are thinking of switching and find a way to retain
them. To stay competitive, Service providers have to understand their customers in
order to not only anticipate, but also to influence switching behaviour (Beckett et al.,
4
2000). Furthermore, a detailed understanding of customers’ switching behaviour can
effectively avoid the harmful consequences of defection, and enhance long-term
relationships with customers (Lees, Garland & Wright, 2007)5.
1.2 WHY DO SUBSCRIBERS SWITCH BRAND OF GSM MOBILE SERVICES?
Brands are successful because people prefer them to ordinary products. In addition to
the psychological factors, brands give consumers the means whereby they can make
choices and judgments. The secret to successful branding is to influence the decisions
the way consumers perceive the company or product, and brands can affect the minds
of customers by appealing to the information acquired and analyzed.
The belief that individual difference in brand preference or choice behavior are caused by
personality differences has not always been supported by empirical research. In an
intensely competitive environment, customers receive numerous reasons to switch the
brand of GSM mobile services.
Figure 1.1 – Brand Switching of GSM cellular services
Commonly observed reasons of switching services includes –
1. Price: - Wireless service providers often offer pricing promotions, such as
relatively low monthly fees, extra talk-time and low call rates. These price incentives
can provide customers with powerful incentives to change mobile service providers.
2. Service quality: - Poor connection, call drops; less network coverage or quality in
places where the customer requires service can cause customers to abandon their
current service provider in favor of one with broader reach or a more robust network.
Poor service quality leads to customers’ dissatisfaction and it become the main cause
to look for another brand GSM mobile services provider.
5
3. Lack of carrier (service provider) responsiveness: - Slow or no response to
customer complaints is a sure path to a customer relations disaster. Broken promises,
long hold times when the customer reports problems, and multiple complaints related
to the same issue are sure to lead to customer churn.
4. Lack of features: - Customers may switch carriers for features not provided by
their current service provider. This might include the inability of a particular carrier to
be the “one-stop shop” for all the customer’s communications needs.
5. Privacy concerns: - Breaking of customer’s privacy, telemarketing, frequent
unsolicited calls and SMS, etc is contributing to the switching decision of subscribers.
6. New technology or product introduced by competitors: - New technologies
such as high-speed data or bundled high-value service offerings create significant
opportunities for carriers to entice competitors’ customers to switch.
7. New competitors enter the market: - The mere existence of viable competitors to
the incumbent carrier may cause certain disloyal customers to churn. Further, as
competitors enter new markets, they often offer short- or long-term incentives to new
subscribers to build market share.
8. Billing or service disputes: - Billing errors, incorrectly applied payments, and
disputes about service disruptions can cause customers to switch carriers.
9. Termination of services: - Frequent and high amount of billing dues, pending
charges or repeated nonpayment of invoices may lead to termination of service by the
provider itself. Such customers switch to other service providers.
10. Variety seeking behavior: - Few subscribers switch the brand without a potential
reason but just to satisfy their need for variety.
11. Changing personal needs:- Change in location, official decision,
recommendations from family and friends, need of fancy number etc, stands as causes
for switching of GSM cellular services.
1.3 CONSUMER BRAND SWITCHING BEHAVIOUR
The buyer decision process consists of five stages: need recognition, information
search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post purchase behavior.
Consumers pass through all five stages with every purchase. But in more routine
purchases, consumers often skip or reverse some of these stages. However, five-step
buying process shows all the considerations that arise when a consumer faces a new
and complex purchase situation.
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The larger the gap between expectations and performance, the greater the consumer's
dissatisfaction. Satisfied customers buy a product again, talk favourably to others
about the product, pay less attention to competing brands and advertising, and buy
other products from the company. A dissatisfied consumer shares his reason of
dissatisfaction with many others. Clearly, bad word of mouth travels farther and faster
than good word of mouth and can quickly damage other’s attitudes about a company
and its products. Another major disadvantage to the company is that of losing their
customer. Such dissatisfied customers switch to other competing brands. This
highlights the significance of study of brand switching behavior in case of
telecommunication subscribers.
Brand switching is the process of choosing to switch from routine use of one
product or brand to steady usage of a different but similar product. Brand
switching behaviour is that deviated part of consumer buying decision process
wherein customer is already experienced the purchase task for a particular category of
product/service and wish to re-buy it from another make.
Figure 1.2 – Brand switching behaviour and Consumer buying behaviour
Consumer Buying Behaviour Brand Switching Behaviour
Need recognition
Information search
Evaluation of motives for / barriers to switching
Switching action
Post-switching evaluation
Need recognition
Information search
Evaluation of alternatives
Purchase action
Post-purchase evaluation
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Brand switching is the behavioral action of the customers with reference to their
choice of brand. Brand switching results if consumer decision to purchase a product
brand differs from that previously or usually purchased. The processes of switching
behaviour include need recognition, information search, evaluation of motives
for/barriers to switching, the switching action and post-switching evaluation are
mainly the genuine responsibility of the brand switcher.
1.4 CHURN RATE
Churn rate is the number of subscribers switching in and out from given period of
time for a brand of particular company. One of the greatest concerns of wireless
telecommunication industry is customer churn6. It is very rare that a service provider
would voluntarily cut off a customer. But voluntary churn is giving
telecommunication managers sleepless nights. Customer churn is a common way of
referring to lost customers. The telecommunications industry started using the term
customer churn a few years ago and the term has now become a standard
measurement yardstick for the entire service industry. Measuring churn rate and the
factors that lead to customer churn can be critical to the health of a company. Most
companies, probably know their churn rate, but don’t know which key factors are
affecting customer churn and to what degree?
Specifically, churn is the gross rate of customer loss during a given period. Churn rate
is defined as the number of customers who discontinue a service during a specified
time period divided by the average total number of customers over that same time
period. Churn rate has been an ongoing concern of telephone and cell phone7 services
in areas where several companies compete and make it easy to transfer from one
service to another8. An increase in churn rate can indicate a decline in
competitiveness. In order for a company to expand its clientele base, its growth rate
must exceed its churn rate.
[ (C0 + A1) - C1 ] Monthly Churn = -----------------------
C0
Where: - C0 = Number of customers at the start of the month
C1 = Number of customers at the end of the month
A1 = Gross new customers added during the month
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1.5 CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS, DEFECTION AND ITS RELEVANCE
WITH BRAND SWITCHING
It is a fact of business life that not all customers will be happy, even in the finest run
businesses, problems, mistakes, or even bad luck can cause people to be dissatisfied
with your products or service: hence ‘customer complaints. When people are
unhappy, they will often complain. Many businesses tend to try and ignore
complaints, or pass them off as irrelevant, however, if dealt with well, they can
actually provide business with a strong advantage.
Within any industry, those companies with a positive philosophy and a reputation for
fair complaint-management have a competitive edge. A good recovery can turn angry,
frustrated and switching customers into loyal ones. Companies need to constantly
increase the level of customer satisfaction and customer expectation, through proper
service recovery system. Service recovery refers to the action taken by a service
provider to address a customer complaint regarding a perceived service failure
(Gro¨nroos, 1988)9. According to Ah-Keng Kau and Elizabeth Wan-Yiun Loh
(2006)10 Consumers may experience different service encounters and would be
expected to display different levels of satisfaction with the service provider. This
satisfaction or dissatisfaction would lead to different behavioral outcomes.
Specifically, they would exhibit different levels of trust, WOM intentions and loyalty
to the service provider.
According to National Consumer Helpline (NCH) complaint data for the month of
April 2011, the telecom sector contributed a lion-share of 19% of the total 10,170
calls; followed by ‘Products’, ‘LPG’, ‘Banking’ and ‘Insurance’ registering between
16%-5% calls.11
Indian telecom watchdog Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been
receiving complaints against all the leading private Mobile Service Providers alleging
various problems which include billing, metering & tariff related issues and activation
of chargeable value added services without explicit consent of the customer. India’s
leading mobile service operator Bharti airtel, Reliance Communications (Rcom)
and Vodafone Essar are on top when it comes to their Mobile Service users
9
complaints related to Billing & Tariff related issues and Activation of chargeable
Value Added Services (VAS) without explicit consent of the customer. In last 3 years
TRAI received the maximum 3571 complaints against Airtel followed by 2,151
from Reliance customers and 1,896 from Vodafone Essar customers, 1239 from
Tata Docomo customers and 925 from Idea Cellular customers lodged against them
for Overcharging by their mobile service operators.12 These alarming complaint
figures indicates subscribers of telecommunication services who are more prone to
switch the brand of their service providers
Data on customer complaints and switching behavior provides us with important
information about customer relationship dynamics. Studying customer complaints and
switching behavior, i.e. crossroads in a relationship, will help us better understand the
consequences of customer dissatisfaction and what erodes loyalty and has a negative
impact on profitability. This understanding will help manage complaints proactively
rather than reactively and help prevent switching. It will also improve quality and
support service development.
Customers generally complain through Letters, Spoken Word to Employees, Phone
Calls and Email. Unaddressed complaints, unresolved complaints and for that matter
even resolved complaints with unsatisfactory solution disappoints customers and
cause customer defection. These complaints if not handled properly will make
customers to not only think about switching to another brand of product or service
but also spread negative feedback and adverse publicity of the brand. This may result
in to potential threat for the marketers.
1.6 NEED OF THE STUDY
Communication plays an indispensable role in promoting effective, social, economic,
political and personal developments. Cellular telephone services have achieved great
commercial success, because the users recognize that mobile telephone access can
improve productivity and enhance safety.
The Indian telecom industry has grown rapidly during the last few years. India has
second largest mobile network in the world with over 811 million subscribers at the
end of March 201113. Mobile service is the fastest growing industry in India. With
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economy opening up, competition in this sector is increasing. The entry of private
companies promoted the use of cellular phones in the country. Today it is buyers
market; henceforth there is a need to count customers’ experience in brand switching
related with cellular services.
Although the wireless telecommunication services market is growing drastically,
Mobile service churn rate is at alarming stage in India. Compared to international
markets, India has one of the highest annual churn rates. Not only is churn in India
high by international standards, it has generally trended upwards in recent years with
an average increase of 5 %.
With mobile operators offering little differentiation including almost similar (equally
good or bad) quality of service and customer care, there is little incentive for
subscribers to switch operators even when they are dissatisfied with their current
operator. So what difference MNP makes for customers? Will it spur more innovation
and a real customer centric approach by operators? Regarding churn, first, MNP will
affect those mobile users who care about their phone number. Second, only mobile
users who are dissatisfied with their current provider will switch. MNP will not
suddenly make a satisfied customer decide to switch.
The introduction of Mobile Number Portability is considered good news for
consumers, but presents a looming threat to mobile operators since it presents
consumers with the choice of retaining their current mobile phone numbers even if
they change their operator. Even if MNP adds 1 percentage to the average monthly
churn that would mean 8.1 million additional churns in a month and around 96
million in a year. However, operators can capitalize on this only if they are able to
create true differentiations in their service, offer better quality of service and customer
care.
As the saying goes, ‘prevention is better than cure.” Predicting customer churn
propensity (Switching probability) and acting on it is extremely important for mobile
operators. Growing customer dissatisfaction in GSM cellular services are attributed to
many reasons: insufficient network coverage, poor connectivity, call drops, billing
disputes, high monthly rental plans, etc. It has been always seen that, a dissatisfied
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customer look for different option available and switch to other brands in search of
fulfilment of his requirements. Moreover switching subscribers not disclose in
advance their switching plans to their existing cellular service providers.
With the emphasis shifting from acquisition to subscriber value generation, operators
are focusing on retention programs. Proactive retention programs require the early
detection of ‘potential churners’. This can be done only by analysing real-time
subscriber behaviour to track any indicative variations. Proactive tracking requires
fully automated, real-time technology for churn prediction and management.
Subscribers’ demography and usage behaviour conveys a lot of information about
their mindset, preference and spending patterns. Any variation is an indication of
churn tendency. Subscribers’ (switching) behaviour analysis will surely enable the
GSM service operators to identify a standard pattern of each subscriber’s service
usage and will help them to detect subscriber signal for switching through its varied
usage of the service in terms of calling frequency, recharge pattern, average bill,
download pattern etc. This all justify the need of study on brand switching behaviour
of subscribers of GSM cellular services.
In spite of having innumerable valid reasons there are very few published studies
which have considered brand switching behavior & switching patterns of subscribers
of GSM cellular services. However in the developed countries, researchers have
primarily paid attention to customers’ satisfaction, loyalty & brand selection criteria.
Today many Indian journals carry articles on these topics on regular basis. However,
very few studies have been found on investigation of factors influencing brand
switching behaviour & their contribution in identifying any specific brand switching
pattern.
Therefore by joining the stream of knowledge body, this study aims to bridge the gap
in the literature.
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Researcher would also like to justify the selection of the target area for this study-
1.7 REASON TO SELECT THE AREA OF RESEARCH
• India- base country for this research
India is one of the world's fastest growing and biggest mobile phone markets.14 The
Indian telecom industry has grown rapidly during the last few years. India has the
third largest (based on the total number of fixed/mobile subscriber lines) telecom
network in the world and the second largest mobile network with 811.59 Million
subscribers at the end of March 201113.
According to research firm Gartner, Indian mobile operators’ churn rate is between
3.5 percent and 6 percent per month which account for almost an average of 57 % -
one of the highest in the Asia-Pacific region.15 Moreover, a latest announcement of
MNP is expected to contribute positively in switching of GSM cellular services in
India. This all background make India as the right choice for the research on study of
brand switching behaviour of subscribers of GSM cellular services.
Map 1.1: Country Map –India
Source: www.mapsofindia.com
13
• Reason to select State of Maharashtra in India for this research study
Among all states of India, Maharashtra has one of the largest subscribers’ base of
wireless cellular services. Combined figure of wireless subscribers in Maharashtra
and Mumbai is higher by at least 20 million compared with any other circle in India.
Moreover, Maharashtra posted healthy wireless subscriber growth rate of 3.22% in
January 2011 which is higher than overall Indian market growth rate of 2.52%. As a
result, one can expect that going forward Maharashtra could continue to dominate
India’s mobile telephony market while other states have to do lot of catching work.
The National average active subscriber base proportion is of 71.14%. However,
Maharashtra with active subscriber base proportion of 77.58% emerge as the top
wireless telecom market.16
Map 1.2 – Map of Maharashtra
Source: www.mapsofindia.com
• Reason to select Pune City in Maharashtra for this research study
Pune is one of India's largest cities with a metro area population of over 5 Million
people. After Mumbai, Pune is the second largest city in the state of Maharashtra. It is
located about 100 miles inland from Mumbai, a coastal city.
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Pune has a very strong educational focus with 9 universities and over 200 educational
institutions. Pune also has a growing industrial base, including IT businesses,
manufacturing, glass, and sugar production. The automotive industry is well
established in Pune. Software and business process outsourcing companies are also
expanding in the region.
Also presence of all major telecom service providers and their subscribers ensure
right mix of respondents as needed for this study.
Map 1.3 - Map of Pune city
Source: http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/maharashtra/pune.htm
Reason to select GSM (Global System for Mobile) for this study
The largest customer base of GSM justifies its popularity over the other services like
CDMA & WLL. No study has been found particularly on brand switching behaviour
of subscribers of Only GSM cellular services, which in turn, highlight the real need of
this study.
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1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Although switching is a common scenario in most service industries (Griffin & Lowenstein,
2001)17, it is more prevalent in telecommunication services (Lee & Murphy 2005)18. In
addition, the main problem with brand switching is that customers don’t announce
their intentions of switch in advance. It’s up to the service providers to uncover
evidence of potential switch, ideally even before the customer solidifies feelings or
intentions. Depending on the situations, such brand switching may be avoidable.
Effective marketing strategy could be developed based on detail study of switching
behavior of subscribers of GSM mobile services.
This study of subscribers switching behavior may reveal different patterns/ trends of
switching among different categories of subscribers and provides better understanding
of their motives behind switching and will help to identify individual customers and
customer segments with a high churn risk.
This study will make several contributions to the marketing literature from both a
theoretical and a managerial perspective by satisfying the four research objectives.
Firstly, this study will contribute to the marketing literature by providing an empirical
examination of several service marketing constructs. The results of the study will also
provide an improved understanding of how demographic factors, dissatisfaction with
the service, Advertising of sales promotion schemes and Mobile number portability
influence subscribers’ switching behaviour in the Indian GSM cellular service
industry.
Secondly, this study will benefit marketers and practitioners in Wireless
Telecommunication industry. This research will identify the most important factors
that cause customers to switch or stay with a GSM cellular service provider. This
knowledge can make a contribution to enhancing long-term customer relationships
with GSM service subscriber. In addition, managers can utilise this knowledge to
prevent perspective customers from switching service providers. From the perspective
of the GSM cellular service providers that are attempting to attract new customers,
this information will enable them to develop strategies to overcome switching barriers
and gain market share.
16
Significance of this research study can be felt stronger with following sighted benefits
to the GSM cellular service providers-
• Brand Attrition Management
Major benefit of a brand switching study which can be sighted is better band attrition
management. This study will not only help to identify prominent reasons of switching
but will also equip GSM cellular service providers with information needed for
formulating effective retention techniques.
• Price Optimization & Yield Management
Study of subscribers’ switching behavior will effectively help in identifying the most
price sensitive segments of switching subscribers and designing optimal pricing
strategies to retain and attract these switching subscribers.
• Sales Forecasting
Study of subscribers brand switching behavior will enable GSM cellular service
providers to predict sales numbers after analyzing switching in and switching out
subscribers and this will help them in developing enhanced marketing plans which
could yield the increased sales and higher ROIs.
• Effective Advertising & Campaign
This study will enables GSM mobile service provider to formulate advertising and
campaign that will be effective in communicating the message and schemes to
subscribers planning to switch to competitors brand.
• Marketing Mix Management
This study will help mobile service providers to effectively match their marketing mix
with the changing needs and requirements of the subscribers. With this, control on
switching subscribers can be exercised who are dissatisfied because of mismatch in
perceived benefits and actual benefits.
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1.9 MOBILE NUMBER PORTABILITY– THE CATALYST IN SWITCHING
PROCESS
The relevance and significance of this study is highlighted because of the
implementation of the MNP in India from 20th January, 2011. Mobile number
portability allows consumers to take service to the provider they mostly want. This has
increased the chances that of subscribers switching their GSM cellular services.
In the mobile telecommunication sector which has oligopoly characteristics,
mobile number portability increases the competition, protects the consumer, allows
them switch the provider easier than before and decreases the costs of changing
provider. The introduction of MNP is expected to eat away at profit margins and
increase competition on one hand. And on other, it will provide the operators with an
opportunity to increase subscribers and gain market share. Moreover, for new
operators, MNP can be a golden opportunity to lure away dissatisfied consumers from
established players thus gaining a foothold in the Indian telecom market. Though
MNP is at a nascent stage in India, it is expected to impact the Indian telecom
industry in a major way. Globally, MNP has been a catalyst in improving the service
quality of the operators. In India too, it is expected to improve the operator service
quality apart from intensifying the competition and giving customers a wider choice
by switching through MNP.
It is an exercise in futility to invest in acquiring a new customer only to lose him
before even a part of the investment can be recovered. Though retaining a customer
might require seven times more effort than acquiring one it definitely makes more
economic sense. Even from a long term perspective maintaining a good relationship
with not just profitable customers but all prospective customers will pay huge
dividends to GSM cellular service providers.
To make this easily possible it is necessary to understand the subscribers and their
brand switching behaviour. This study on brand switching behaviour surely
provides us a better understanding of motives of switching customers. Brand
switching behaviour study can help to devise more attractive incentives, tariff
bundles, loyalty schemes and proactive customer service along with acquisition and
retention strategies. Such a study may also manifest the opportunities and threats that and
puts forward possible corrective and control measures to be taken in the future.
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1.10 CHAPTER SCHEME:
The chapter scheme is so designed as to provide a cogent presentation of the topics
included in this study. Care has also been taken to maintain clarity, lucidity and flow
of the presentation without sacrificing the depth and core of the study. The study is
represented with seven chapters excluding Appendix & References.
The chapter scheme for this thesis is as follows-
• Chapter -1: Introduction and Background of the study
The first chapter is of Introduction where researcher has given brief background about
the study. This chapter introduces the brand switching behaviour concept along with
various reasons of switching of GSM cellular services. Further the chapter discusses
about need and significance of the study. This chapter also highlights the role of
customer’s complaints and Mobile number portability on switching of cellular services by
the subscribers. At the end, researcher has given the chapter scheme for this thesis.
• Chapter-2 : Overview of Telecommunication sector in India
This chapter gives detail information about evolution of mobile phone, technology in
use, current status of Indian telecomm (wire-line and wireless) sector. It introduces
with the Telecom regulatory bodies in India like TRAI, DoT,etc. Different mobile
handset manufacturers in India and their revenue market share have been discussed
here. This chapter also highlights the position of Indian Telecommunication sector on
the Global Map. It takes us to the interesting figures of porting request generated in
the initial period of MNP implementation. At the end, profile of key players providing
GSM cellular services in Indian Market is given which includes BSNL, Airtel,
Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Uninor, Reliance, Tata DoCoMo, Etisalat, Videocon etc.
• Chapter-3: Review of Literature
It describes the review of the available literature relevant to the area of research. This
chapter provides the literature review related to customers’ switching behaviour of
services and various factors affecting it such as brand, price, demographic factors,
service quality, customers dissatisfaction with service, customer loyalty advertising
and promotion, Mobile number portability and customers retention.
• Chapter-4: Research Design and Methodology
The complete research methodology related to this research study is covered in this
chapter. This chapter put forward the objectives and Hypotheses of the study. Here
19
the sources of primary & secondary data, sampling design and data gathering
techniques are specified. Questionnaires along with different scaling techniques, which
are used to gather the data, are explained in this chapter. It also includes statistical
techniques used for data analysis & hypothesis testing.
• Chapter-5: Data analysis and Hypothesis Testing
This chapter presents analysis of the data in four parts -
a. Part-I : Analysis of Subscribers’ (Customers) responses
b. Part –II : Factor analysis
c. Part- III : Analysis of GSM cellular service provider’s responses
d. Part-IV : Analysis of Patterns of Switching
e. Part- V : Testing of Hypotheses
The gathered data is processed and is analyzed according to the defined outline. The
editing, coding, validating the data, categorization of data & tabulation of collected
data are the key steps involved in data processing. The detailed analysis of collected
data covering all steps is mentioned in this chapter. Hypothesis testing is done using
the Chi Square test through SPSS. Descriptive analysis, frequency analysis and factor
analysis was used to analyse the data.
• Chapter- 6: Findings and Observations
This chapter enlists the research findings of the study. It provides a clear idea about
the output of the study in relevance with its objectives. In this chapter, Researcher put
forward important findings such as influence of various factors such as Subscriber’s
demography, dissatisfaction, Mobile number portability and advertising of sales
promotion schemes on brand switching behavior of GSM subscribers.
• Chapter- 7: Conclusion, Suggestions and Directions for Future Research
This chapter provides a summary of complete study in the form of conclusion. Further
relevant guidelines are conveyed in form of suggestions, which will be useful to GSM
cellular service providers and subscribers. Researcher has also mentioned additional
certain areas and variables which may be considered while studying brand switching
behavior of GSM cellular subscribers under the heading directions for future research.
• Bibliography and Appendix are given at the end of the thesis.
20
REFERENCES-
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market".http://wirelessfederation.com/news/527-india-now-the-worlds-fastest-
growing-mobile-market/. Retrieved 23rd September 2007,
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3&cat_id = 466. Retrieved 17th August 2010.
5. Lees, G., Garland, R. & Wright, M., (2007), ‘Switching banks: Old bank gone but not
forgotten’. Journal of Financial Services Marketing. Nov.2007,12(2),146-157.
6. The big CRM challenge: Understanding churn, Financial Express Jan.05, 2006
7. http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cellular-telephone.
8. ‘The Churn Rate’. http://www.investorglossary.com/churn-rate.htm.
9. Grönroos, Christian (1988), "Service Quality: The Six Criteria of Good Perceived
Service Quality," Review of Business, Vol.9 (Winter), pp.10-13.
10. Ah-Keng Kau and Elizabeth Wan-Yiun (2006), ‘The effects of service recovery on
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