Social Influences in Consumers’ Mobile Phone Switching Behavior

Mobile phones have become a commodity and consumers switch their phones increasingly often. Earlier research suggests that social influences have a role in mobile phone switching, but the literature does not well explain what the underlying dynamics behind it are. We address this gap and report a longitudinal study on the social influences in consumers’ mobile phone switching behavior. Theoretically the paper is founded on switching behavior and more specifically on the push-pull-mooring framework that has been recently used to explain consumers’ switching behavior related to different products and services. Our mostly qualitative survey data was collected annually among Finnish university students during 2012-2014. While mobile phone users primarily base their switch decisions on rational reasons, indications of social influences on their switching behavior were discovered. Most interestingly, respondents seemed to recognize the role of social influences in their past behavior, but did not connect this to their future decisions