Switching Cost (Learning Burden)

What it measures

Four five-point Likert-type items assess the learning costs associated with switching service providers, capturing the time required to become proficient, the effort needed to get up to speed, and the perceived ease or difficulty of adapting to a new provider's systems and processes. Two items are reverse-scored to capture ease of understanding.

Response format

5-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree)

Scale items

• Learning to use the features offered by a new service provider as well as I use my service would take time.
• There is not much involved in understanding a new service provider well. (r)
• Even after switching, it would take effort to "get up to speed" with a new service.
• Getting used to how another service provider works would be easy. (r)

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alpha of .85 for both long-distance and credit card applications. CFA alongside seven other switching cost scales supported unidimensionality, convergent and discriminant validities. Items 2 and 4 are reverse-scored.

Citation

Burnham, T. A., Frels, J. K., & Mahajan, V. (2003). Consumer switching costs: A typology, antecedents and consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31(2), 109–126.

Keywords