This research aims to examine whether different user groups exist in the mobile services industry and to profile and characterize them in order to provide management recommendations for mobile service companies. To examine the users' behavior in the mobile services sector, customer segmentation by means of factor analysis and k-means cluster analysis is developed with data from 443 mobile service users. Further, a Manova test is conducted to confirm differences among the obtained user segments. Mobile service customers cannot be seen as a homogenous group, since different customer profiles coexist in the mobile service industry. More specifically, four user clusters emerge from the research findings, namely “pragmatic uninvolved,” “satisfied savers,” “prone-to-switch” users, and “service mavens,” the “service mavens” being the most attractive segment for mobile service companies. A behavioral-based segmentation is developed to extend the understanding of customer behavior in the mobile services field.
TopIntroduction
The mobile services sector is tremendously dynamic and fast growing, since over 6.0 billion people own and use a mobile device or a smartphone in year 2017, becoming an intensely competitive industry (Mobile Statistics Report, 2018). In fact, mobile devices offer a mobile computing platform with greater portability than other computing devices such as laptops and tablets (Barnes, Pressey, & Scornavacca, 2019). Furthermore, the evolving nature of this industry makes that mobile traditional service has evolved into advanced mobile services, which could be understood as those data services that have the look and feel of internet web pages, but are accessible through mobile devices and operating through telecommunication networks (Lopez-Nicolás, Molina-Castillo, & Bouwman, 2008). These advanced mobile services include texting, gaming, video, mobile internet, mobile commerce, located-based services or banking services and so on. Similarly, the increasing technological advances enable value-added mobile services offering functionality to users such as communication, social networking, multimedia entertainment and information (Hamka et al., 2014). Consequently, mobile services are being increasingly implemented and used and have a profound impact on individuals’ lifestyle and everyday routines, given that customers save time and money and strongly benefit from the use of these advanced services (Casado-Aranda, Liébana-Cabanillas, & Sánchez-Fernández, 2018).
In addition, the booming use and development of mobile services has opened up new challenges for mobile service providers that need to understand their customers in order to respond to their dynamic use behavior. In this context, one practical approach to investigate the user behavior in this industry is through user segmentation and profiling. The present research addresses two main goals: first goal is to examine whether different customer groups exist in the mobile services industry; and the second research goal is to provide a comprehensive profile of each one of the identified customer groups.