* Corresponding author. Tel: + ) 0342 ( – 2533 913 / 914 / 917 / 918 / 919 E-mail addresses: baksi.arup@gmail.com (A. K. Baksi) © 2011 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2011.06.014 Management Science Letters 1 (2011) 405–414 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Management Science Letters homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/msl Service quality and switching behavior of customers Arup Kumar Baksi a* and Bivraj Bhusan Parida b a Department of Management Science, Bengal Institute of Technology & Management, Santiniketan, India b Department of Tourism Management, The University of Burdwan,West Bengal, India A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received June 1, 2011 Received in Revised form June, 30, 2011 Accepted 30 June 2011 Available online 30 June 2011 The dimensions of service quality and their relationship with the behavioral pattern of customers have received immense importance in the banking sector. The relational impact of service quality on customers’ propensity to switch from their banking service provider, is therefore, very much relevant. Empirical studies have revealed that there is a significant relationship between retention of customers and profitability. Therefore, to have an understanding of the behavioral pattern of the customers with respect to their intention to defect from their bank is financially justified. This paper investigates the relationship between service quality and switching behavior of customers in the context of the largest nationalized bank of India –State Bank of India (SBI) for two of their branches in sub-urban West Bengal namely Bolpur and Santiniketan. © 2011 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Service quality Switch Relationship Customer relationship management 1. Introduction Service quality has emerged as a critical success factor towards growth and survival of service firms. High service quality to customer offers a firm to differentiate themselves in competitive markets (Karatepe et al., 2005). Perception of quality with respect to a service is difficult to frame due to intangibility and heterogeneity associated with the same. Perceived service quality has been considered as an attitude towards interpreting superiority of the service (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000). The service quality dimensions of the Indian banking sector is going through a phase of rapid transition with the advent of multinational foreign banks and aggressive expansion drives of the private banks. The transition has been further stimulated by the integration of technology, which has catapulted the banking experience of the customers to a digitalized platform. Convergence of technologies namely internet, mobile telecommunication, auto-vending machines etc. has virtually offered customers a seamless banking process where they have more options and benefits. This has triggered a gradual migration of customers from the dominating public sector banks to the foreign and private banks. Banking sector reforms witnessed a metamorphosis of the Indian public sector banks, which got rid of their age-old operational procedures and upgraded to electronically networked branches. According to Ndubisi (2003), customers’ perception of superior service is related to