An empirical investigation of users’ voluntary switching intention for mobile personal cloud storage services based on the push-pull-mooring framework

Mobile personal cloud storage services (PCSSs) have become increasingly common among mobile users in recent years. Prior studies largely focused on understanding users' early adoption of mobile PCSSs, but attention to post-adoption switching behavior is still rare. Based on the push-pull-mooring framework of migration theory, to explore the factors that influence the voluntary switching intentions of mobile PCSS users in the Chinese market, we developed a model around three effects: pushing, pulling, and mooring. The results show that two push factors (privacy risk and security risk), six pull factors (referent network size, complementarity, usefulness, technical compatibility, lifestyle compatibility, and enjoyment), and two mooring factors (habit and switching cost) have significant effects on switching intention. Moreover, referent network size, total network size, complementarity, technical compatibility, lifestyle compatibility and enjoyment are significant to usefulness, and usefulness mediates between them and switching intention. The findings will help practitioners devise proper strategies for retaining current users and attracting new users.