Customer churn analysis: Churn determinants and mediation effects of partial defection in the Korean mobile telecommunications service industry

Retaining customers is one of the most critical challenges in the maturing mobile telecommunications service industry. Using customer transaction and billing data, this study investigates determinants of customer churn in the Korean mobile telecommunications service market. Results indicate that call quality-related factors influence customer churn; however, customers participating in membership card programs are also more likely to churn, which raises questions about program effectiveness. Furthermore, heavy users also tend to churn. In order to analyze partial and total defection, this study defines changes in a customer's status from active use (using the service on a regular basis) to non-use (deciding not to use it temporarily without having churned yet) or suspended (being suspended by the service provider) as partial defection and from active use to churn as total defection. Thus, mediating effects of a customer's partial defection on the relationship between the churn determinants and total defection are analyzed and their implications are discussed. Results indicate that some churn determinants influence customer churn, either directly or indirectly through a customer's status change, or both; therefore, a customer's status change explains the relationship between churn determinants and the probability of churn.     

Food industry structure in Norway and Denmark since the 1990s: Path dependency and institutional trajectories in Nordic food markets

Structural changes in Norwegian and Danish food industry since the 1990s is analysed as a path dependent response to the neo-liberal turn. Norway entered the 1990s as a protected market and Denmark as case of an export oriented industry. These developmental strategies are rooted in early 20th century industrialisation and influenced by institutional transformations in the 1990s, such as EU and WTO. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are studied in the context of changing political environments. Explaining two different trajectories, we combine path dependency theories and a Polanyi inspired ‘varieties of capitalism’ framework with corporate strategy theories on food industry M&As. We identify two different types of path dependent development, a self-reinforcing in Denmark and a transformative ‘breaking point’ in Norway.     

The ‘close but adversarial’ model of supplier relations in the U.S. auto industry

While cooperative buyer–supplier relations are an important source of sustainable competitive advantage, noncooperative behavior persists widely. This paper tests a model incorporating noncooperative behavior within a context of formal commitment, using data from the U.S. auto industry. This ‘close, but adversarial’ model appears to be reasonably well supported by the data, suggesting that even within professed cooperative buyer–supplier relationships adversarial behavior persists. In contrast, a small but significant minority of the relationships were found to be characterized by high levels of trust as well as informal commitment. The results suggest specific strategies for developing cooperative supplier relations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.