Customer Satisfaction and Switching Barriers: Effects on Repurchase Intentions, Positive Recommendations, and Price Tolerance1

The current article attempts to extend previous research by testing the effects of customer satisfaction and 2 types of switching barriers-negative and positive-on key manifestations of attitudinal loyalty (repurchase intentions, positive recommendations, and price tolerance). The work also studies whether the effect of customer satisfaction is linear or nonlinear. Finally, the paper analyzes whether switching barriers moderate the relative strength of the customer satisfaction/attitudinal loyalty relation. To this end, a total of 554 private mobile-phone customers were surveyed. The distinction between negative and positive switching barriers is important to draw theoretical and managerial implications.