The present study analyses the creation of customer satisfaction and loyalty, along with the influence of
switching costs in the mobile services’ market by comparing network – the so-called traditional – and
virtual mobile services, in order to empirically and conceptually investigate the difference between these
mobile services’ operators.
For this purpose we tested a conceptual model by developing structural equation modeling, in the context
of a mature market– Spain– gathering a sample of 406 mobile phone users. The analysis highlights
that both service value and corporate image exert the strongest influence on customer satisfaction and
loyalty both for traditional and virtual mobile services, despite some relevant differences were found
regarding switching costs. Since our findings show low switching costs, mobile service providers should
focus their marketing efforts toward attracting new customers and increasing the primary demand,
rather than retaining their existing customers.