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 author’s 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.
CITATION STYLE
Schulte, B. K. (2015). 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 (pp. 1–228). Springer Science+Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-08788-3
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