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The study is designed to explore the drivers of customer satisfaction of leading mobile network providers in a high‐growth market like Kolkata a metropolitan city in India.

A framework was developed based on earlier study of eminent researchers pertinent to customer satisfaction of mobile network providers in Germany, France, Korea, Canada, the USA and Greece. The construct flexibility was considered as a new determinant for customer satisfaction. For this data were collected from 277 respondents and pertinent analysis were made using multivariate techniques.

The study finds that generic requirements, price, and flexibility are major drivers of customer satisfaction of mobile network providers and brand wise relevance of these key determinants.

The fixed line telephone directory was the sampling frame, and all the respondents considered in the survey had a fixed line but there are situations where customer subscribes only to mobile phones. It is also necessary to study other metropolitan cities of India to validate the results we have obtained for Kolkata. Originality/value – The current research has taken into account new driver of customer satisfaction in a high‐growth market and this is the first study on drivers of customer satisfaction of leading mobile network providers in the city of Kolkata, India.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how technological and strategic developments enable new billing processes for mobile content services.

Interviews with practitioners are used as input for designing different archetypical role division models for billing and process models. The potential of these process models to reshape the mobile industry is evaluated on three criteria: convenience for the end‐user; potential resource barriers; and the fit with strategic interests of the actors involved.

Both technological advances and the introduction of new roles and strategies in the mobile domain enable the emergence of alternative billing methods. While network operator‐centric models remain relevant in the short term, in the longer term they will co‐exist with other models in which the customer transaction is owned by the content aggregator, the content provider, the ISP or the payment provider.

The research demonstrates the relevance of analysis at the process level in assessing the feasibility of new role division models at the value creation level.

The emergence of alternative billing providers is expected to change the power balance in the value network and assist in opening up the “walled garden”.

The analysis extends beyond existing discussions on billing in the mobile industry, which typically focus on the value network level, as the process level and the related resources are included. Moreover, the empirical data from the interviews with practitioners at various organizations provide new insights into the feasibility of these models in practice.

The present paper aims to investigate the effect of network provider, customer demographics, customer satisfaction and perceived switch costs on churn in the mobile telecommunications market.

The study is carried out as a longitudinal, two-wave study of mobile telecommunications customers in Norway: n=1,499 (wave 1) and n=976 (wave 2). Churn is measured as change in the mobile network provider between the two waves. The data are analysed as a logistic regression with the independent variables provider, gender, satisfaction, switch costs and age.

The analysis shows significant effects of provider, satisfaction, switch costs and age and of the interaction between satisfaction and provider. Gender has no significant effect on churn. Provider effects are interpreted as effects of brand image since other known influences on churn (satisfaction, switch costs and demographics) have been controlled for in the design.

Further research is necessary in order to single out which brand aspects are responsible for the effects of brand ownership and to ensure the generality of the findings outside Scandinavia.

The findings indicate that a strong brand image makes a company less susceptible to customer churn caused by low satisfaction.

The relation between brand ownership and churn in the mobile telecommunications sector has not been reported previously.

This study aims to examine the extent of corporate image of mobile telecommunication company on service quality and price fairness, which subsequently play important roles in influencing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

A questionnaire was administered to subscribers of mobile service providers in Brunei. The proposed research model was tested using structural equation modeling to estimate the relationships between corporate image, service quality, price fairness, customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The results indicated that favorable corporate image positively affects network quality, customer support and price fairness, which, in turn, lead to formation of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

This study demonstrates the magnitude of corporate image as an enabler of market dominance, recognizing that superior corporate image can become a first mover advantage and competitive advantage, which explains the high customer retention of a mobile telecommunication company. The effects of corporate image as a first mover advantage have not been highlighted in the literature of first mover advantage of mobile telecommunication; therefore, this study provides a new insight in this study area.

Multimedia content that is accessible through mobile devices has a larger size than other types of content (e.g. text, images). This may lead to higher prices for accessing the content via mobile devices, as mobile operators are capping mobile data billing plans in an effort to increase their revenues and prevent congestion. This poses problems for the users that are not willing/do not afford to pay the required price but still want to use multimedia content through the mobile networks. A price reduction for the user, as well as minimising bandwidth consumption can be obtained as a trade-off in multimedia quality. However, as previous research shows, not all people are willing to trade-off quality for a lower price; therefore, there is no straightforward approach to this problem. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to present a model of user willingness to pay for multimedia content quality as a function of the user risk attitude with the aim to provide personalised content depending on the user willingness to trade-off price for multimedia content quality.

A user model was proposed based on a literature review and an existing data set. A stereotypical approach was used where users are divided in two groups: risk averse and risk seekers. An experimental study involving six scenarios was used to validate the findings.

The results of the evaluation show that for the proposed user risk model, risk seekers preferred to pay for multimedia quality, whereas risk adverse users preferred to switch to a lower multimedia quality when monetary cost is involved. However, when the mobile data billing plan had the bandwidth limited, rather than a higher price to be paid when the bundle quantity was exceeded, the risk averse people’s preference for a lower quality still holds, but it does not show that most of the risk seekers prefer to pay for the multimedia quality.

This paper adds to the state of the art by providing a novel way to model the user preferences for multimedia quality based on their attitude towards risk, age, and gender.

Mobile data users, content providers (application service providers, over-the-top providers), mobile network operators (MNOs) and internet service providers (ISPs) could benefit from the results of this research. For mobile data users, the outcome of this research could be beneficial, as they can obtain personalised content based on their needs. From the content providers’ point of view, providing personalised content can lead to more satisfied users. It could also reduce the bandwidth consumption and the traffic to the server and/or proxy. Reducing the bandwidth consumption could lead to the possibility to acquire more customers and hence increase the revenues.

This is among the first studies to assess how the user preference towards multimedia quality if affected by the user attitude towards risk.

Recently, a large body of research has been devoted on the role of trust in shaping different types of transactions, especially in rural financial development. Trust is a set of expectations shared by all those who engage in an exchange. Indeed, the “rule of the game” suggests that no trusting party in a transaction should act opportunistically. Consequently, this study aims to establish the mediating effect of trust in the relationship between mobile money adoption and usage and financial inclusion of MSMEs in developing countries with a specific focus on rural Uganda.

A quantitative survey-based study was used and responses obtained from 379 MSMEs located in northern Uganda were analysed using partial least square-PLS version 3.0. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed from scales and items used in previous studies referenced in internationally recognised journals to elicit responses from the MSMEs. Structural equation modelling was used to test the models to arrive at a final empirical model derived from the data.

The authors found evidence that trust enhances mobile money adoption and usage to increase the scope of financial inclusion of MSMEs in developing countries. Moreover, when individual effect was determined, trust also had significant and positive effect on financial inclusion. Thus, the study results imply that trust enhances mobile money adoption and usage to improve the level of financial inclusion of MSMEs in developing countries.

The study used cross-sectional data to document the relationship between mobile money adoption and usage and financial inclusion and to establish the mediating effect of trust in the relationship. Future research could use relevant longitudinal data to verify other benefits of trust.

The results present trust as a significant factor for FINTECH financial services marketing and growth. Specifically, data privacy and effectiveness of the mobile telephone network is more likely to help consumers to bridge the gap between participation and non-participation on the mobile money platform. Customers’ data sent over the mobile network of providers should be protected from unnecessary access and usage by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) staff and unauthorised persons and agents. Data protection protocols should be set by the MNOs to avoid unnecessary access and use of customers’ data.

Globally, Fintech scholars have examined the role of mobile money in promoting financial inclusion. However, there is insufficient evidence on the mediating effect of trust in the relationship between mobile money adoption and usage and financial inclusion, especially among rural MSMEs. This study invents a novel direction on the importance of trust in creating transaction efficiency by eliminating opportunism and fraud with in the Fintech ecosystem.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of inter-organizational networks in the emergence of a disruptive technology by taking a snapshot view of the UK market for mobile voice over internet protocol (mVoIP) technologies. By delineating the technologies required for an mVoIP call to occur, the role of incumbents, technology and inter-organizational networks is explored.

The paper uses a case study approach using secondary data from a variety of sources including company websites, newspapers, technical press and users to form a picture of the current situation.

The authors show that inter-organizational networks can act both to enable and delay disruptive technologies. They discuss the difference between collaborative and collective actions and the way in which these can slow or even prevent a new emerging technology.

The paper is based on secondary data and the research results may lack generalizability to other technologies.

The need for new business models for mVoIP is discussed.

Disruptive technologies are difficult to predict or map until after the market disruption has occurred. This paper aims to map a disruptive technology at a point in time when the technology is still emerging. The study is based on a comprehensive analysis of technology and market actions and is also based on secondary data: it is limited at the detailed level to one geographic market but provides a unique snapshot of an emerging disruptive technology.

This study aims to explore the loyalty intent of prepaid (contract-free) customers in a market where disloyalty is prevalent and the market has low switching costs.

A quota, non-probability sampling technique was applied, resulting in the completion of 220 self-administered questionnaires that were used for data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation model were applied to determine model fit and test the formulated hypotheses for this study.

The strength of the satisfaction–loyalty relationship is found to be influenced by three specific satisfaction antecedents, strengthened by the mediating role of customer delight and impacted by switching costs.

The findings of this study may guide mobile service providers in their initiatives to secure satisfaction and loyalty in a market context where switching costs are low and the market is described as disloyal.

This study investigates the well-researched relationship between satisfaction and loyalty and the antecedents of customer satisfaction to determine which of these variables should be the focus in a challenging market where consumers are disloyal and switching costs are low.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the effects of structural and bonding attachment on brand loyalty. The authors identified network quality, network coverage and mobile number portability (MNP) as structural elements of attachment that affect brand loyalty. Similarly, the authors identify brand trust and social interaction ties as elements of bonding-based attachment that affects brand loyalty.

The authors employed a survey as the research design. There were 500 respondents who were customers of telecommunication network brands in Ghana. Data collected were analyzed using the partial least square approach to structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on SmartPLS 3.

The findings indicate that structural and bonding-based attachments affect the brand loyalty. Specifically, the authors found that network coverage, network quality, brand trust and social interaction ties have positive effects on brand loyalty while MNP has a negative effect on brand loyalty.

This study conceptualizes attachment from both structural and bonding perspectives, which are rare in the marketing literature. Thus, this study advances the conceptualization of attachment in the marketing literature.

The paper aims to discuss the business issues surrounding the choice between the end‐to‐end internet architecture, in particular peer‐to‐peer networks, versus managed telecommunications architectures, in particular IMS, for the migration towards a next‐generation mobile system.

The paper organises the arguments available in the literature and technical field along four critical business design dimensions, providing a balanced overview of both sides of the argument.

The paper discriminates between weak and strong arguments on both sides, and introduces a number of recommendations towards actors that will implement IMS.

The arguments collected from the literature and industry are not exhaustive but selected on their relevancy for business repercussions.

While most position papers on IMS or P2P are written from an opinionated perspective, this paper offers a trade‐off view of both side's advantages and disadvantages. It reframes the dispute as a number of design trade‐offs to be made on various levels.