High prepaid subscriber churn impacts on the service provider's profitability, financial evaluation and resource utilisation. Simultaneously it deprives subscribers of improved service because service providers are committing resources to subscriber acquisition and the management of subscriber retention instead of committing these resources to improving the value propositions offered to subscribers. A prepaid churn rate of just less than 50% in South Africa (2009) highlights the need for research into the factors that influence churned prepaid subscribers' choice of mobile-service provider. This in turn will increase the knowledge of retention and acquisition of prepaid subscribers. Using a telephonic survey on a sample of 861 prepaid subscribers, quantitative research was conducted to determine those factors that churned prepaid subscribers consider important when choosing a mobile-service provider. By making use of Analysis of Variance 4 out of 11 factors that, prepaid subscribers considered very important were identified when choosing a mobile-service provider. These included, in order of importance, Customer service quality, Mobile tariffs, Prepaid airtime and Starter-pack availability and Promotions. Discriminant Analysis highlighted 9 factors to be used to predict and classify groups of subscribers based on average monthly spend. The discriminate equation coefficients highlighted how these two groups of subscribers view the 9 factors when choosing a mobile-service provider. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This research investigates the impact of the interaction between the consumer and mobile service provider on the adoption of advanced mobile commerce services by existing consumers of mobile technology. These factors include: 1) Perceived Relationship Quality (PRQ), which is the consumer’s evaluation of the quality of his/her relationship with the mobile service provider, and 2) Perceived Value of the Adoption Incentive (PVI), which is the consumer’s evaluation of the value of incentives that are offered by the service provider to entice him/her to adopt the mobile service. The influence of these factors on consumer attitudes and intentions towards adopting mobile commerce services is studied and compared with three other well-known adoption factors including perceived usefulness, ease of use and the subjective norm. / This study was undertaken in three parts. Firstly, a conceptual study was conducted to investigate and analyse the existing literature on consumer adoption of mobile commerce services. This phase started with a general review of the existing studies using a novel model: the Entities-Interactions Framework, EIF. The EIF explains adoption behaviour in terms of interactions between the consumer and the other entities including the mobile service, the service provider and the social system. This framework was used to analyse the extent to which important adoption factors have been covered by past research and therefore identify the research questions. The conceptual study resulted in the development of a research model and relevant hypotheses. / Secondly, a large-scale questionnaire survey was conducted to test the research model and the proposed hypotheses. This part of the research helped give a broad picture of the influence of consumer-service provider factors on consumer adoption of mobile commerce services. Thirdly, face-to-face interviews with mobile phones users were conducted in order to validate the survey results and provide an understanding of the mechanisms that control the impact of the investigated factors. The research found that PRQ and PVI have an important influence on the attitude and intention of existing mobile phone users towards accepting and using advanced mobile commerce services. Furthermore, the research found that these newly introduced factors are more influential on consumer adoption perceptions than other well-established factors. / The study enriches our understanding of technology adoption by individuals because it explains why an existing user of a technology, such as mobile technology, will or will not adopt advanced versions of that technology. The findings affirm that in the context of communication technologies, which are interactive by nature, understanding the interaction between consumers and service providers is a key to understanding the progressive adoption by consumers of advanced forms of these technologies. The thesis provides practitioners (particularly mobile service providers) with a better understanding of the impact and implication of their interaction with consumers on consumers’ acceptance and use of mobile services. The study emphasises the importance of incorporating this understanding throughout the mobile service provision process, starting from the conceptualisation of the service to the actual provision of the service to the market. The study also offers a novel comprehension of how to view each mobile service offer as a consequence of the previous offer and a precedent of the next in order to enhance consumer adoption of mobile service in the short and long runs.