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Interest in customer reacquisition has increased as firms embrace the concept of customer relationship management. Using survey and transactional data from defected subscribers of a publishing company, we investigate how defected customers evaluate their propensity to return to the company prior to any win-back offer. We introduce a new variable for relationship marketing, general willingness to return (GWR), and show that it is strongly and positively related to the actual return decision and the duration of the restarted relationship. Combining attribution theory elements with existing win-back explanations, which focus on economic, social, and emotional value perceptions, provides a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence the GWR to a former relationship. Importantly, we learn that regardless of whose fault it is, if the reasons for the relationship termination can change or are preventable and the firm can control those changes, then the defected customer has a higher general willingness to return to the former relationship. Also, we show that the duration of time absence before relationship revival moderates the impact of GWR on second relationship duration. Furthermore, we demonstrate that satisfaction prior to defection and the length of time absence provide a reasonable basis for distinguishing defected customers who differ in their GWR. By applying our findings, we derive recommendations for firms on how to position marketing communications to recapture defected customers according to their general willingness to return., Author(s): Doreen Pick[sup.1] , Jacquelyn S. Thomas[sup.2] , Sebastian Tillmanns[sup.3] , Manfred Krafft[sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) Freie Universität Berlin, Boltzmannstr. 20, 14195, Berlin, Germany (2) Cox School of Business, Southern [...]

This article presents a meta-analysis of the antecedents of buyers' perceived switching costs and switching. The authors synthesize results from 170 independent samples in 152 manuscripts and test several moderator effects and a causal meta-analytic model. The major findings are as follows: (1) Of all antecedents, market-related variables (i.e., alternatives and competition) have the strongest influence on switching costs; they reduce these costs via affecting buyers' quality perception of a relationship and offerings. Firm-related variables (e.g., seller investments) play a minor role as a driver of switching costs and switching, indicating a limited influence of firms' activities on switching costs. (2) Switching costs have only a weak negative influence on switching. (3) A moderator analysis reveals that most of the effects are context specific. For instance, services (versus goods) decrease and B2C (versus B2B) settings increase the relationship between antecedents and switching costs. Further, the moderating influence of year and culture indicate fundamental market changes and variations across countries. The study provides several implications for relationship research and management. Keywords Perceived switching costs * Switching * Relationship marketing * Meta-analysis, Introduction A growing body of studies on perceived switching costs has provided multiple findings about the role of this key factor in relationship marketing. Switching costs are costs perceived, anticipated, [...]