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This study seeks to extend current research by testing a framework for understanding the impact of perceived suppliers' willingness for customization, effective communication, and trust regarding perceived switching costs.

Research data were collected from electronics firms in Taiwan; 281 questionnaires were collected. Structural equation model (SEM) analysis was applied to the data.

The study suggests that perceived trust contributes to perceived switching costs. The perceived willingness of a supplier to customize for a buyer can indirectly impact on perceived switching costs by way of perceived trust toward the supplier. Furthermore, analysis of the direct and indirect effects reveals that effective communication plays a dominant role and has a significant influence on trust and perceived switching costs.

While recent research increasingly examines customer switching costs in terms of antecedents, this study provides greater insight into switching costs from the trust‐forming perspective to ensure customer retention.

The purpose of this study is to elucidate how green value influences potential green hotel customers’ propensity to choose green. Studies on green hotels emphasized environmental and financial benefits that conventional hotels do not provide to society or the companies. However, these benefits may not be the ones that resonate best with its potential customers. Besides, given the characteristics of green products, it is also important to point out how customers perceive green-related costs.

A pilot test was conducted in three universities and then an anonymous questionnaire was randomly administered to Korean passengers at the Incheon International Airport. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were the primary methods of data analysis.

Four dimensions for perceived green benefits and three dimensions for perceived green costs emerged: functional, emotional, social and epistemic benefits; and monetary, explicit and implicit costs. Environmental concern influenced perceived green benefits positively and perceived green costs negatively, while its relationship with purchase intention was insignificant. Perceived green benefits was not a significant predictor of purchase intention, but perceived green costs was, and it partially mediated the effect of environmental concern on purchase intention. Functional and emotional benefits as well as monetary and explicit costs were significantly associated with purchase intention.

This study has only investigated customer perceived value of a green hotel stay in the pre-purchase stage, and hotel brand level was not taken into consideration. Besides, convenience sampling of Korean respondents only may limit the generalizability of the research findings.

Research findings help to explain the inconsistency between eco-friendly attitude and green purchase intentions. Managers may understand the importance of developing customers’ green awareness and how to market the green value to them.

Few researches have focused on the role of customer perceived value in explaining true behavioral change of green hotel guests. The current study may be the first attempt to incorporate the social exchange theory into the conceptual model, and extend the knowledge of perceived value in this specific green context by not only emphasizing multi-dimensional perceived green benefits and perceived green costs but also incorporating a situational factor of environmental concern.

The purpose of this paper is to verify the relationship between switching costs and customer loyalty in e‐commerce.

The study conducted an empirical research. A total of 425 online shopping customers were invited from northeastern USA as samples.

The findings show that switching costs positively influence customer loyalty. In addition, perceived risks will affect the relationship of switching costs and customer loyalty. For customers with low perceived risks, switching costs are also positively associated with customer loyalty. However, for customers with high perceived risks, the relationship of switching costs and customer loyalty is weak or negative.

One limitation is that mostly students were selected in the sample. The insights of this study can further validate the previous studies about the relationship of switching costs and customer loyalty, and suggest that perceived risks can be a moderating factor affecting this relationship.

The study suggests that the practitioners should further understand the relationship among switching costs, perceived risks and customer loyalty for their customers.

The paper contributes to the knowledge of perceived risks and how switching costs affect customer loyalty, particularly in e‐commerce.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderator effects of switching costs, classified by type (relational, procedural, and financial) and direction (positive and negative), on the relationships between customer-perceived value, trust, and loyalty.

This study reports on quantitative data from a survey of two service contexts which vary in their degree of customer-employee contact and customization. In total, 360 usable questionnaires were collected, and the data were analyzed using multi-group structural equation modeling.

The results demonstrate that switching costs moderate, in different ways, the relationships between customer loyalty, trust and perceived value. Moreover, the strength of the moderator effects vary according to service type.

This study provides new insight into understanding the moderating role of switching costs thus, reduces inconsistencies about the direction and the strength of the moderator effect of switching costs in loyalty frameworks.

This study helps managers choose the most effective loyalty strategy for specific service industries and perceptions of switching costs, and to look beyond their service boundaries in order to cross-fertilize strategies for handling switching costs.

No empirical study to date has simultaneously examined the moderator effect of switching costs classified by type and direction on the relationships between customer-perceived value, trust, and customer loyalty across two different service contexts in a single framework.

This paper aims to examine how knowledge sharing behavior is influenced by three sets of dynamics: a rational calculus that weighs the costs and benefits of sharing; a dispositional preference that favors certain patterns of sharing outcomes; and a relational effect based on working relationships.

Concepts from social exchange theory, social value orientation, and leader‐member exchange theory are applied to analyze behavioral intentions to share knowledge. The study population consists of employees of a large pension fund in Canada. Participants answered a survey that used allocation games and situational vignettes to measure social value orientation, propensity to share knowledge, and perception of cost and benefit.

The results suggest that personal preferences about the distribution of sharing outcomes, individual perceptions about costs and benefits, and structural relationship with knowledge recipients, all affect knowledge sharing behavior significantly. Notably, it was found that propensity to share knowledge is positively related to perceived benefit to the recipient, thus suggesting that evaluation of cost and benefit in social exchange is not limited to self‐interest, but is also influenced by perceived recipient benefit. Moreover, it was found that the relationship with the sharing target (superior or colleague) also influenced sharing.

Most studies emphasize the organizational benefits of knowledge sharing. This study examines knowledge sharing from the perspective of the individual who approaches knowledge sharing as a social exchange that involves perceptions of costs and benefits, preferences about sharing outcomes, and relationship with the sharing target. The study also introduces innovative methods to measure social value orientation and propensity to share knowledge.

This study aims to understand the effects of brands’ transparent communication (i.e. production transparency and cost transparency) on consumers’ perceptions of a brand’s perceived transparency and authenticity, as well as how such perceptions impact consumers’ attitude, trust and behavioral intentions.

Two between-participants factorial design experiments (n = 176 for Study 1 and n = 169 for Study 2) were conducted to examine consumers’ responses to a brand’s cost transparency and production transparency.

The results revealed that transparency in the focal brand’s communication of production and cost would increase consumers’ perceptions of the brand’s transparency and authenticity because of its perceived information sensitivity. Such positive effects were found to similarly impact consumers’ attitude, trust and behavioral intention toward the brand.

The results point to the importance of brand transparency in marketing communication, specifically as it pertains to the influence that the inclusion of transparent cost and production information can have on consumers’ perceptions of authenticity, trust and attitude, as well as how these perceptions translate into behavioral intention.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to explore the differences between production transparency and cost transparency in influencing consumer responses and the underlying mechanisms. The findings also expand to the literature on brand transparency and brand authenticity.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model in which the perceived post-purchase monetary costs and time costs of switching from a pioneer product are a function of the perceived difficulty of comparing follower products with the pioneer product, the variety of ways in which the pioneer product is used by an adopter, pioneer adopter satisfaction with the pioneer, the familiarity of the pioneer adopter with follower products and the anticipated reactions to switching of other household members who use the pioneer product.

The authors test this model with data collected from 518 Japanese iPad owners. Hypotheses are evaluated using structural equation modeling.

The authors find that each of the hypothesized independent variables is related in the hypothesized direction with one or both types of switching costs.

Findings indicate that the variety of pioneer product use, the perceived negative reaction of other household users of the pioneer product and comparison difficulties between the pioneer and follower product have an important influence on the perceptions of the perceived costs of switching from a pioneer to a follower product.

Findings suggest that managers responsible for launching follower products can lower the perceived costs of switching from a pioneer product through specific product design and communication decisions.

In contrast with prior switching-cost research, this paper focuses on switching costs as perceived by pioneer adopters and examining the importance of pioneer-follower product comparison difficulties, the variety of pioneer product use and the negative reactions of other household users of the pioneer product.

This research provides a new perspective in explaining cardholders' willingness to use debit cards instead of cash by applying the transaction costs economic theory. This study also expands the adaptation of transaction cost economics theory in explaining consumer behaviour by investigating the moderating effects of income and education level on the relationship between perceived transaction costs and willingness to use debit cards.

The conceptual framework was developed primarily from the transaction cost economics theory. An in-depth interview method was employed to further support hypothesis development and the development of measurement scales. A structural equation model linking asset specificity, behavioural uncertainty, environmental uncertainty, frequency of payment, perceived monitoring costs, perceived adaptation costs and willingness to use debit cards was tested using data from a sample of 384 Vietnamese debit card holders.

This study's results support the transaction cost economics theory that asset specificity, uncertainty and frequency of payment all positively contribute to the perceived transaction costs associated with debit card usage. However, only environmental uncertainty and perceived adaptation costs have significant negative impact on willingness to use debit cards, with the relationship between environmental uncertainty and willingness to use debit cards being totally mediated by perceived adaptation costs. Moreover, the relationship between perceived adaptation costs and willingness to use debit cards becomes less negative among richer and better-educated cardholders.

The research provides insights into the hidden obstacles for developing cashless economies, thereby supporting policy makers in designing more effective and comprehensive strategies to make debit cards more widely used as a true substitute for cash.

This study provides a new lens in explaining customer willingness to use debit cards, while expanding the transaction costs economics theory by incorporating demographic factors as moderators in the relationship between transaction costs and the card-or-cash choice.

Online consumer reviews play an important role in influencing consumers' purchasing decisions by providing a wealth of information about products and services. Framed by uncertainty reduction theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine consumer perceptions of online consumer reviews and effects on consumer attitudes and usage behaviors in relation to individual characteristics.

Data were randomly collected from 1,930 US online consumer review users using an online survey.

The researchers found that consumers perceived both benefits and costs from online consumer reviews and that both benefits and costs influenced consumer attitudes toward, and usage behaviors of, online consumer reviews. Individual characteristics – confidence in the information process and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence – were shown to determine how online consumer reviews were perceived.

The results provide insight to retailers and marketers as to how they can use consumer reviews for their products or services to improve business performance.

Empirically examines how certain variables influence the extent of external information search for banking services. The effects of perceived benefit, perceived cost, perceived risk, and perceived knowledge are tested within a proposed structural equation, cost‐benefit based Banking Services Model (BSM). Surveys a sample of 661 students at a major US university to gather data on their information search for banking services. The results reveal that the BSM provides a good fit to the data. Perceived benefit, cost and knowledge influence the extent of prepurchase bank information search. In addition, the consumers felt that it was more beneficial to obtain more information when there was a perceived benefit of lowering risk and when they already had some form of prior product knowledge. Implications of the BSM for services marketing management and consumer theory, limitations of the study, and future research are discussed.