Price Sensitivity and Customer Perceived Switching Costs in Business-to-Business Markets: Joint Effect on Customer Repurchase Intentions

Abstract

Previous research assumes an unconditionally positive association of perceived switching costs-financial, procedural and relational-with repurchase intentions. Building on the theory of context-dependent preference formation, the authors posit price sensitivity as a contextual factor that moderates the relationship of repurchase intentions with three different types of switching costs - financial, procedural and relational. Using a large-scale dataset (N=8,588) spanning multiple industries in the B2B domain, the authors show that price sensitivity moderates these associations such that: (1) the negative association of financial switching costs with repurchase intention is stronger when price sensitivity is low, (2) the positive association of procedural switching costs with repurchase intention is stronger when price sensitivity is low and (3) the positive association of relational switching costs with repurchase intentions is stronger when price sensitivity is high. Linking repurchase intentions to actual sales underscores the practical relevance of their results.