Co-creation, value, satisfaction and costs as antecedents of customer retention in higher education

Co-Creation, Value-in-Use, Satisfaction, and Switching Costs as Antecedents of Higher Education Students Retention

Purpose – The research aimed to propose and validate a Theoretical Model to understand how the relationship between customers (service users) and service providers might result in customer retention in the higher education context.Design/methodology/approach – The research was implemented through a survey applied to 301 students of a Higher Education Institution, and the data were analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM).Findings – The results indicate that value co-creation impacts customer satisfaction and value-in-use, customer satisfaction impacts switching costs and customer retention, and switching costs impact customer retention. However, value-in-use did not significantly impact customer retention, opposing to the expected results.Originality/value – There is no consensus on which constructs effectively are the antecedents of customer retention for the most diverse types of services. For this reason, this research aimed to validate a Theoretical Model that contemplates the constructs of value co-creation, value-in-use, customer satisfaction, and switching costs as antecedents of customer retention in the higher education context.