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Reaching the breaking point: a dynamic process theory of business-to-business customer defection

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Abstract

Qualitative field research based on long depth interviews with business-to-business customers who defected from a supplier relationship is used to develop an integrated theoretical framework explaining how the defection decision process unfolds over time in business-to-business relationships. The authors develop a taxonomy of events, both internal and external to the relationship, that are proposed to create “defection energy,” or the motivation to move a customer from relationship status quo toward a defection decision. The framework illustrates how these internal and external events interact with the organization’s and the individual decision maker’s goals, practices, and values to engage a dynamic anchoring and updating mechanism based on accumulated defection energy that drives the process toward a decision threshold. The research offers marketers insights to improve defection management, including an understanding of how organizational and individual customer needs shape relationships; that defection decisions build as a result of multiple events over time, requiring a longer-term perspective on defection; and that defection decisions can be influenced by events outside the core product or service delivery process, suggesting that these decisions need to be understood within the broader context of the overall relationship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. North Carolina State University, 2801 Founders Drive, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

    Thomas Hollmann

  2. Southern Illinois University, 1025 Lincoln Drive, Carbondale, IL, 62901, USA

    Cheryl Burke Jarvis

  3. Arizona State University, 400 East Lemon Drive, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    Mary Jo Bitner

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Hollmann, T., Jarvis, C.B. & Bitner, M.J. Reaching the breaking point: a dynamic process theory of business-to-business customer defection. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 43, 257–278 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0385-6

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