www.theinternationaljournal.org> RJSSM : Volume: 08, Number: 01, May 2018 Page 147 Understanding mobile Enterprise Customers’ Switching Behaviour : The Perspective Of Pull- Push Mooring Model And mobile Number Portability C.N.S.Ramnath Babu* * Assistant Professor, Jansons School of Business, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India - 641 659. And Dr.S.Sundar** ** Associate Professor, Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu India- 620 014. *Corresponding author: ramnathbabu@yahoo.com Abstract This study aims at finding out the key determinants of switching (churning) behaviour among enterprise customers based on Push-Pull-Mooring (PPM) theory and the influence of Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The role of relationship marketing and innovation in the organisations’ retention and acquisition strategy is also presented. A thorough literature review coupled with two focus group discussions and fourteen in-depth interviews provided the impetus for the design and development of a survey instrument that was then administered through e-mail to enterprise subscribers in Rest of Tamilnadu (ROTN).The paper identifies the Push and Pull factors that cause switching as well as the Mooring factors that impact on enterprise customers’ intent to stay with current in-use Mobile Network Operator (MNO). The study highlights the switching factorsthat are imperative foran MNO and helps to identify and retain their most valuable customers(from switching-prone to non-switching- prone customers) and to optimally allocate marketing resources. Keywords: mobile number portability (MNP), mobile network operator, switching, churning, PPM (Push-Pull-Mooring) theory. Introduction The telecom sector continues to be a critical force for growth, innovation, and disruption across multiple industries. The Indian telecommunication sector has been witnessing intense competition following several structural and regulatory changes.Structural changes with rapid growth of mobile and internetservices andthe development of competition have resulted in companies being allowed a greater range of activities, enabling them to become more competitive.Technological changes have made Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) rethink their strategies for services offered to both individual and commercial subscribers. The development of network function, specifically Mobile Number Portability (MNP) has aggravated both individual and enterprise subscriber churn in a big way and further made mobile telecommunications service available at affordable price(service contract tariff plans) toboth urban and rural customers. The MNOs segmented the business customers as large corporates, small medium enterprise (SME), government bodies and public sector undertakings for better focus and services, to move from being a pure mobile service provider to becoming an end-to-endcommunications solution provider.As businesses get more complex, the enterprise customers look into solutions like healthcare services, cloud services, energy management, Internet-of-Things, mobile applications, enterprise video solutions, M2M etc. from MNOs. The mobile telecommunications service industry recognises an enterprise customer as a company which necessarily has bulk mobile connections, makes annual turnover above Rs.250 croreand maydemandany type of end-to-end solutions for their business.For operational purposes, MNOs define bulk enterprise customer as, a company that owns bulk mobile connections in its name and makes payment directly. Department of Telecommunications, (2012) defines bulk connection as 10 or more than 10 mobile connections issued in a company or an