Cocriação, valor de uso, satisfação e custos de troca como antecedentes da retenção de cliente no ensino superior

Abstract

The customer retention is considered a possible source of competitive vantage and a key factor of success to organizations that seek to improve their market share and profitability. However, there isn’t a consensus about which constructs are effectives antecedents for stimulate customer retention through different services types. Aiming to this gap, this research project has, at this central focus, the development and test a Theoretical Model that include the value co-creation, value-in-use, customer satisfaction and switching costs as antecedents of customer retention constructs. This study was implemented by the use of a survey research applied to 301 undergraduate students of a Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The data was analyzed through the Structural Modeling Equation in order to analyze the relationships among the constructs presented in the proposed Theoretical Model. The results indicated that the tested theoretical model presented satisfactory fit indexes, implying that value co-creation impacts positively in customer satisfaction and value-in-use, customer satisfaction impacts positively in switching costs and customer retention, switching costs impacts positively in customer retention. However, value-in-use did not show significant impact on customer retention, contradicting the expected results. Thus, the study contributes to a better understanding of each individual construct, as well presents empirical evidences of their relationships as antecedents of customer retention, especially the co-creation as a strong predictor for value-in-use and customer satisfaction in the higher education context.