Modeling the Antecedents of Customer Switching Behaviour in Nigerian Banking Industry

Abstract

This study examines the antecedents of customer switching behaviour in Nigerian banking industry. Customer switching behavior in deposit money banks has become an important issue for discussion among the researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders of the banks. From the marketing literature, two antecedents of customer switching behavior were obtained from factor analysis, namely; assurance and empathy. Each of the construct in this study was measured using 7-point scale ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 7 strongly agree: assurance has 5 items, empathy has 4 items, word of mouth and customer switching have 3 items each. One hundred and fifty questionnaires were administered to target respondents of selected customers of deposit money banks in Kano Metropolis in North-Western region of Nigeria. One hundred questionnaires were completed and returned, representing 66.7 percent response rate. We utilized a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using SmartPLS 2.0. The findings of this study revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between: assurance and word of mouth communication; empathy and word of mouth communication. The study also found a significant negative relationship between word of mouth communication and customer switching. Meanwhile, the study did not find a significant relationship between: assurance and customer switching; empathy and customer switching. The implication of the findings in the perspective of deposit money banks' customers is discussed.