Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Choice Criteria for Mobile Telecom Operator: Empirical Investigation among Malaysian Customers

2011; Volume: 7; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

1551-6849

Sabbir Rahman, Ahasanul Haque, Mohd. Ismail Sayyed Ahmad,

Digital Platforms and Economics

[Abstract] The purpose of this paper is to investigate the choice criteria for mobile phone operator in the Malaysian Mobile Telecom market by the customers. Structural equation models were applied to test the propositions by means of survey of random sample of 400 mobile telecom customers from major cities in Malaysia. It was found that the price and service quality hypothesis are more important than the brand image hypothesis. From this research, mobile telecom managers can learn and plan to offer attractive offer in the market that meet Malaysian customers' needs. [Keywords] service quality; price; brand Image; customers' perception Introduction Mobile telephone provides ubiquitous social interactions between and among individuals, groups, organizations, and the governments alike, and that, subsequently, makes and operates broadly networked international environment tying nations, cultures, casts, creeds, national identities and businesses. Deutsch (1953) states this trend as a web of nations. Today's development of communication technology ignores the border and makes the world as global village (McLuhan, 1964). The telecommunication sector is experiencing phenomenal change with the liberalization and privatization of the sector (Beard & Hartmann, 1999), which, in turn, widens fierce competition. Worth noting is that the telecommunication industry in Malaysia has also been fastgrowing sector keeping appropriate pace with advancements, especially the mobile telecom market. This development has become catalyst for the growth of the nation's commercial and industrial sectors. This telecommunication sector contributed much to the nation's economic growth and development, which is consistent with the national vision 2020. Scrutinizing the background of the Malaysian telecommunication sector, competition can be seen as main factor by the telecommunication service provider companies. Beside TM (Telecom Malaysia), three major companies have been operating in Malaysia, namely Celcom, Digi, and Maxis. These three service providers usually cover the following segments of the Malaysian telecommunication market: traditional telecommunications, IP services, wireless and mobile markets and technologies, broadband markets and technologies. They also provide most sophisticated mobile services with an expanding number of value added services, such as Short Message Service (SMS), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Subscription Services (SS), General Packet Radio Services, and Third Generation services. To modernize and to enhance telecommunications service growth rate, competitive element was introduced in stages. In this study, we have tried to pin down the consumers' perceptions and their rejuvenating ideologies about the mobile telecommunication service providers and their services. The outcome of the study will deliberately assist the future service providers to take passionate actions towards enriching customers' service experience. This research focuses particularly on consumer in the cell phone industry in Malaysia. Moreover the proposed research also builds on existing consumer behavior literature by exploring the role of perception that ultimately influences the selection of an operator's services. The overall objective in this research is to understand the customers' the choice criteria for mobile phone operator in the Malaysian mobile telecom market by the customers. Meanwhile, this research has some of the following specific objectives, as well: to determine the factors of customers' perception towards an operator's; to recommend some suggestion to make future strategy. Literature Review Service Quality Consumers prefer service quality when the price and other cost elements are held constant (Boyer & Huit, 2005). According to Leisen and Vance (2001), service quality helped create the necessary competitive advantage by being an effective differentiating factor. …