Switching Propensity in Single-Homing and Multi-Homing Cloud Service Relationships

Abstract

Retaining users is a problem for online services. Our study compares the commitment and switching propensities of single-homing users, who only consume services from a single provider, and multi-homing users, who consume similar services from multiple providers at the same time. Using a social capital lens, we test a relationship-commitment model on 109 cloud storage service users. While both types of users show similar levels of service provider commitment, switching propensity is governed by commitment and trust only for multihoming users. For single-homing users, switching propensity is governed by trust. Trust is motivated more by shared values for multi-homing users, but more by mutual understanding for single-homing users