1. J. R.M. Philemon and M. E.S. Mngulwi
10th Operations Research Society Of Eastern Africa (ORSEA) Conference Nairobi, KENYA Factors Influencing Customer Switching Behavior among Mobile Phone Service Providers: Case of University Students
10th ORSEA CONFERENCE 2014
J. R.M. Philemon and M. E.S. Mngulwi
UNIVERSITY OF DAR-ES-SALAAM BUSINESS SCHOOL

2. OUTLINE Introduction Problem statement
Model of customer switching behavior
Methodology
Findings
Conclusions
Recommendations
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3. Introduction
In 2012, the global mobile market grew strongly to nearly 7 billion connections, representing a growth rate of 13.7% p.a. since 2008.
2013 was a landmark year, with for the first time more SIMs active than the world population.
Market for the mobile telecommunications is expected to grow over the years, with annual growth rate of 7.6% expected between 2012 and 2017.
This increasing popularity of mobile technologies has led to the dramatic use of mobile phones among college students. WHY?
Communications and access to academic resources on their mobile devices (Hung & Zhang, 2011).
Mobile phones open up new avenues for extending the scope, scale and quality of education (Mishra, 2011).
This view is premised on the decline in the price of mobile handsets and usage costs, which makes mobile phones increasingly ubiquitous, especially in poorer communities (Taxler, 2009).
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4. Introduction (cont’d)
Africa has been a key source of mobile industry growth and the growth is set to continue.
Tanzania telecommunication industry has also witnessed a dramatic growth and the rapid expansion of mobile phone usage in Tanzania has been triggered by a highly competitive market and service diversification. The competitive environment has resulted into customers switching between mobile service providers.
Operators(VODACOM, AIRTEL, ZANTEL, SASATEL, SMART, TIGO) are now providing different mobile phone services such as voice and message transmission, data services, paging as well as internet services (Hassan and Semkwiji, 2011).
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5. Problem Statement
Some researchers postulate that consumers’ switching behavior poses a serious threat to long-term relationships (Ganesh & Reynolds, 2000). Despite the fact that many studies have been done on the factors influencing customer switching , very few studies have been done in developing countries such as Tanzania and more specifically on university students. The objective of this study was to determine the causes of students switching behavior among mobile phone service providers.
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6. Model of Customer Switching Behavior KEAVENEY
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7. Methodology
Population: Students of the University of Dar-es- salaam (17,000 students) and Tumaini University (Dar-es-salaam College)-2,100
Why Students?: University students constitute a large and growing market for the mobile phone services.
Data collection: 4 point Likert scale questionnaire
Sample Size: Krejcie and Morgan (1970) 384 students.
Analysis: Descriptive (Frequencies, Percentages, Means and Standard Deviations); t-test
Reliability: Cronbach's alpha: Variables showed acceptable values (above 0.7).
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8. Profile of the Respondents
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9. First Mobile Phone Subscription
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10. Factors Influencing Switching Behavior (Descriptive Results)
Mean
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
COMPETIT
169
2.6154
.10107
RATE
2.3333
.94631
.07279
SERVICEF
2.2643
.97174
.07475
RESPFAIL
2.2032
.96507
.07424
ENCOFAIL
1.9201
.99977
.07691
INVOLUNT
1.8491
.09144
ETHICAL
1.7618
.88465
.06805
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11. T-Test: Factors Influencing Switching Behavior-1
Test Value =2.5 t df
Sig. (2-tailed)
Mean Difference
95% Confidence Interval of the Difference
Lower
Upper
RATE
-2.290
168
.023
-.1667
-.3104
-.0230
SERVICEF
-3.153
.002
-.2357
-.3833
-.0881
ENCOFAIL
-7.540
.000
-.5799
-.7317
-.4281
RESPFAIL
-3.999
-.2968
-.4434
-.1503
COMPETIT
1.142
.255
.1154
-.0841
.3149
ETHICAL
-.7382
-.8725
-.6038
INVOLUNT
-7.118
-.6509
-.8314
-.4704
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12. T-Test: Factors Influencing Switching Behavior-2
The seven main factors were further analyzed using t-tests to determine their influence on university students switching behaviors. In assessing the factors a one sample t-test was performed. The value of 2.5 served in demarcating agreement with the statements (above 2.5) and those disagreeing with the statements (below 2.5). The t-values are presented on Table 3. All the factors with the exception of competition [COMPETIT] have negative t-values and are significant at either 0.05 or 0.01.
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13. Recommendations -1
Offer services at relatively cheaper rates so as to woo university students to their side.
Avoid service failures.
Establish effective service recovery strategies in case of inevitable failure. Studies have shown that resolving customer problems effectively has a strong impact on customer loyalty.
To innovatively be ahead of competition at any point in time.
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14. Recommendations-2
Invest many resources in maintaining current subscribers while attracting new ones.
Keeping track of the reasons for university students switching of service providers as the reasons may not be static but dynamic.
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15. THANK YOU VERY MUCH
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