IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/mktlet/v26y2015i4p579-592.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Implications of minimum contract durations on customer retention

Author

Listed:
  • Jan Becker
  • Martin Spann
  • Timo Schulze

Abstract

Customer retention is a major driver of customer lifetime value and is thus a key performance metric in marketing management. Consequently, companies try to retain customers by offering contracts with minimum contract durations (MCD). Using behavioral, psychometric, and advertising data for a large sample of DSL customers, the authors study the impact of minimum contract durations on actual customer churn behavior. The analyses demonstrate that subscriptions with minimum contract durations do indeed help companies to successfully retain customers. The effect is impaired though, as companies typically (must) provide incentives to convince customers to commit to those contracts. We find that incentives attract customers that either cannot or should not be retained and hence require companies to carefully apply both MCD and incentives. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Jan Becker & Martin Spann & Timo Schulze, 2015. "Implications of minimum contract durations on customer retention," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 579-592, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:26:y:2015:i:4:p:579-592
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-014-9293-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11002-014-9293-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11002-014-9293-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. O'Donoghue, Ted & Rabin, Matthew, 1997. "Doing It Now or Later," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt7t44m5b0, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    2. Frey, Bruno S & Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, 1997. "The Cost of Price Incentives: An Empirical Analysis of Motivation Crowding-Out," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 746-755, September.
    3. Matthew Rabin & Ted O'Donoghue, 1999. "Doing It Now or Later," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 103-124, March.
    4. Paul Klemperer, 1995. "Competition when Consumers have Switching Costs: An Overview with Applications to Industrial Organization, Macroeconomics, and International Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 62(4), pages 515-539.
    5. Kim, Han-joo & Byun, Sang-kyu & Park, Myeong-cheol, 2004. "Mobile handset subsidy policy in Korea: historical analysis and evaluation," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 23-42, February.
    6. Steenkamp, Jan-Benedict E M & Gielens, Katrijn, 2003. "Consumer and Market Drivers of the Trial Probability of New Consumer Packaged Goods," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 30(3), pages 368-384, December.
    7. Richard H. Thaler, 2008. "Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 15-25, 01-02.
    8. Yu, Lean & Wang, Shouyang & Lai, Kin Keung, 2009. "An intelligent-agent-based fuzzy group decision making model for financial multicriteria decision support: The case of credit scoring," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 195(3), pages 942-959, June.
    9. Eugenio J. Miravete, 2003. "Choosing the Wrong Calling Plan? Ignorance and Learning," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 297-310, March.
    10. Armstrong, J. Scott & Overton, Terry S., 1977. "Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys," MPRA Paper 81694, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Ruth N. Bolton, 1998. "A Dynamic Model of the Duration of the Customer's Relationship with a Continuous Service Provider: The Role of Satisfaction," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 45-65.
    12. Tallberg, Mathias & Hämmäinen, Heikki & Töyli, Juuso & Kamppari, Sauli & Kivi, Antero, 0. "Impacts of handset bundling on mobile data usage: The case of Finland," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(10-11), pages 648-659, November.
    13. Stefano DellaVigna & Ulrike Malmendier, 2006. "Paying Not to Go to the Gym," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 694-719, June.
    14. Prins, R. & Verhoef, P.C., 2007. "Marketing Communication Drivers of Adoption Timing of a New E-Service among Existing Customers," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-018-MKT, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katharina Dowling & Lucas Stich & Martin Spann, 2021. "An experimental analysis of overconfidence in tariff choice," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(8), pages 2275-2297, November.
    2. Eroglu, Sevgin A. & Machleit, Karen A. & Neybert, Emma G., 2022. "Crowding in the time of COVID: Effects on rapport and shopping satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Olaf Maecker & Christian Barrot & Jan U. Becker, 2016. "The effect of social media interactions on customer relationship management," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 9(1), pages 133-155, April.
    4. Bray, J. & De Silva Kanakaratne, M. & Dragouni, M. & Douglas, J., 2021. "Thinking inside the box: An empirical exploration of subscription retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    5. Hugo Ribeiro & Belém Barbosa & António C. Moreira & Ricardo Rodrigues, 2024. "A closer look at customer experience with bundle telecommunication services and its impacts on satisfaction and switching intention," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(3), pages 668-686, September.
    6. Lily (Xuehui) Gao & Evert Haan & Iguácel Melero-Polo & F. Javier Sese, 2023. "Winning your customers’ minds and hearts: Disentangling the effects of lock-in and affective customer experience on retention," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 334-371, March.
    7. Hugo Ribeiro & Belém Barbosa & António Carrizo Moreira & Ricardo Gouveia Rodrigues, 2024. "Determinants of churn in telecommunication services: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(3), pages 1327-1364, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nagel, Christian & Heidenreich, Sven & Schumann, Jan H., 2024. "Enhancing Adoption of Sustainable Product Innovations: Addressing Reduced Performance with Risk-Reducing Product Modifications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Milkman, Katherine L. & Beshears, John, 2009. "Mental accounting and small windfalls: Evidence from an online grocer," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 384-394, August.
    3. Baddeley, M., 2011. "Energy, the Environment and Behaviour Change: A survey of insights from behavioural economics," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1162, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    4. Esteban, Susanna & Miyagawa, Eiichi & Shum, Matthew, 2007. "Nonlinear pricing with self-control preferences," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 306-338, July.
    5. Ulrike Malmendier, 2018. "Behavioral Corporate Finance," NBER Working Papers 25162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Katherine L. Milkman & Julia A. Minson & Kevin G. M. Volpp, 2014. "Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym: An Evaluation of Temptation Bundling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(2), pages 283-299, February.
    7. Heiss, Florian & Ornaghi, Carmine & Tonin, Mirco, 2021. "Inattention vs switching costs: An analysis of consumers' inaction in choosing a water tariff," DICE Discussion Papers 366, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    8. Metcalfe, Robert & Dolan, Paul, 2012. "Behavioural economics and its implications for transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 503-511.
    9. repec:oup:qjecon:v:128:y:2012:i:1:p:53-104 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Vincze, János & Koltay, Gábor, 2009. "Fogyasztói döntések a viselkedési közgazdaságtan szemszögéből [Consumer decisions from the angle of behavioural economics]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(6), pages 495-525.
    11. Tasoff, Joshua & Letzler, Robert, 2014. "Everyone believes in redemption: Nudges and overoptimism in costly task completion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 107-122.
    12. Humphreys, Brad & Ruseski, Jane & Zhou, Li, 2015. "Physical Activity, Present Bias, and Habit Formation: Theory and Evidence from Longitudinal Data," Working Papers 2015-6, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    13. Polo, Yolanda & Sese, F. Javier & Verhoef, Peter C., 2011. "The Effect of Pricing and Advertising on Customer Retention in a Liberalizing Market," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 201-214.
    14. Stephen L. Cheung & Agnieszka Tymula & Xueting Wang, 2022. "Present bias for monetary and dietary rewards," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(4), pages 1202-1233, September.
    15. Piccoli, Luca & Tiezzi, Silvia, 2021. "Rational addiction and time-consistency: An empirical test," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    16. Kevin Devereux & Mona Balesh Abadi & Farah Omran, 2019. "Correcting for Transitory Effects in RCTs: Application to the RAND Health Insurance Experiment," Working Papers 201910, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    17. Laureti, Carolina & Szafarz, Ariane, 2023. "Banking regulation and costless commitment contracts for time-inconsistent agents," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    18. De Paola, Maria & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2015. "Procrastination, academic success and the effectiveness of a remedial program," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 217-236.
    19. Stefano DellaVigna, 2009. "Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 315-372, June.
    20. O'Donoghue, Ted & Rabin, Matthew, 2002. "Procrastination on Long-Term Projects," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt5jv059fq, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    21. Haewon Yoon, 2020. "Impatience and Time Inconsistency in Discounting Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(12), pages 5850-5860, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:26:y:2015:i:4:p:579-592. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.