IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jemstr/v23y2014i4p839-875.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Service Bundling Reduce Churn?

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey Prince
  • Shane Greenstein

Abstract

We examine whether bundling in telecommunications services reduces churn using a series of large, independent cross sections of household decisions. To identify the effect of bundling, we construct a pseudo‐panel dataset and utilize a linear, dynamic panel‐data model, supplemented by nearest‐neighbor matching. We find bundling does reduce churn for all three “triple‐play” services. The effect is only “visible” during times of turbulent demand. We also find evidence that broadband was substituting for pay television in 2009. This analysis highlights that bundling helps with customer retention in service industries, and may play an important role in preserving contracting markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey Prince & Shane Greenstein, 2014. "Does Service Bundling Reduce Churn?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 839-875, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:23:y:2014:i:4:p:839-875
    DOI: 10.1111/jems.12073
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jems.12073
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jems.12073?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Verbeek, Marno & Vella, Francis, 2005. "Estimating dynamic models from repeated cross-sections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 83-102, July.
    2. John Thanassoulis, 2007. "Competitive Mixed Bundling and Consumer Surplus," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 437-467, June.
    3. Moffitt, Robert, 1993. "Identification and estimation of dynamic models with a time series of repeated cross-sections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1-2), pages 99-123, September.
    4. Jay Pil Choi, 2004. "Tying and innovation: A dynamic analysis of tying arrangements," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(492), pages 83-101, January.
    5. Deaton, Angus, 1985. "Panel data from time series of cross-sections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1-2), pages 109-126.
    6. Mark Israel, 2005. "Tenure Dependence in Consumer-Firm Relationships: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Departures from Automobile Insurance Firms," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(1), pages 165-192, Spring.
    7. Schmalensee, Richard, 1982. "Commodity Bundling by Single-Product Monopolies," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(1), pages 67-71, April.
    8. Alberto Abadie & David Drukker & Jane Leber Herr & Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Implementing matching estimators for average treatment effects in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(3), pages 290-311, September.
    9. Salinger, Michael A, 1995. "A Graphical Analysis of Bundling," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(1), pages 85-98, January.
    10. Whinston, Michael D, 1990. "Tying, Foreclosure, and Exclusion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(4), pages 837-859, September.
    11. Carbajo, Jose & de Meza, David & Seidmann, Daniel J, 1990. "A Strategic Motivation for Commodity Bundling," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 283-298, March.
    12. McKenzie, D.J.David J., 2004. "Asymptotic theory for heterogeneous dynamic pseudo-panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 235-262, June.
    13. Joseph Farrell & Carl Shapiro, 1988. "Dynamic Competition with Switching Costs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(1), pages 123-137, Spring.
    14. Yannis Bakos & Erik Brynjolfsson, 1999. "Bundling Information Goods: Pricing, Profits, and Efficiency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(12), pages 1613-1630, December.
    15. Farrell, Joseph & Klemperer, Paul, 2007. "Coordination and Lock-In: Competition with Switching Costs and Network Effects," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1967-2072, Elsevier.
    16. Greenstein, Shane & McDevitt, Ryan, 2011. "Evidence of a modest price decline in US broadband services," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 200-211, June.
    17. Armstrong, Mark, 1996. "Multiproduct Nonlinear Pricing," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(1), pages 51-75, January.
    18. Chen, Yongmin, 1997. "Equilibrium Product Bundling," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(1), pages 85-103, January.
    19. Jose Cuesta & Hugo Ñopo & Georgina Pizzolitto, 2011. "Using Pseudo‐Panels To Measure Income Mobility In Latin America," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 57(2), pages 224-246, June.
    20. Rosston Gregory L. & Savage Scott J & Waldman Donald M, 2010. "Household Demand for Broadband Internet in 2010," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-45, September.
    21. Gregory Rosston & Scott Savage & Donald Waldman, 2010. "Household Demand for Broadband Internet Service," Discussion Papers 09-008, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, revised Feb 2010.
    22. R. Preston McAfee & John McMillan & Michael D. Whinston, 1989. "Multiproduct Monopoly, Commodity Bundling, and Correlation of Values," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(2), pages 371-383.
    23. Seung‐Hyun Hong, 2013. "Measuring The Effect Of Napster On Recorded Music Sales: Difference‐In‐Differences Estimates Under Compositional Changes," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 297-324, March.
    24. Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 1.
    25. Dolores Collado, M., 1997. "Estimating dynamic models from time series of independent cross-sections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 37-62.
    26. William James Adams & Janet L. Yellen, 1976. "Commodity Bundling and the Burden of Monopoly," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(3), pages 475-498.
    27. Barry Nalebuff, 2004. "Bundling as an Entry Barrier," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 159-187.
    28. Stole, Lars A., 2007. "Price Discrimination and Competition," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 2221-2299, Elsevier.
    29. Jeffrey T. Prince, 2008. "Repeat Purchase amid Rapid Quality Improvement: Structural Estimation of Demand for Personal Computers," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 1-33, March.
    30. Gregory Crawford, 2008. "The discriminatory incentives to bundle in the cable television industry," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 41-78, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Calzada, Joan & Martínez-Santos, Fernando, 2014. "Broadband prices in the European Union: Competition and commercial strategies," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 24-38.
    2. Howell, Bronwyn E & Potgieter, Petrus H., 2017. "Competition and vertical/agglomeration effects in media mergers: bagging bundle benefits," 14th ITS Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Kyoto 2017: Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society 168487, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    3. Jin, Haofeng, 2022. "The effect of overspending on tariff choices and customer churn: Evidence from mobile plan choices," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. repec:bri:cmpowp:13/321 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ribeiro, Hugo & Barbosa, Belém & Moreira, António C. & Rodrigues, Ricardo, 2022. "Churn in services – A bibliometric review," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).
    6. Reiko Murakami, 2022. "Consumer switching behavior and bundling: an empirical study of Japan’s retail energy markets," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 443-463, August.
    7. Grzybowski, Lukasz & Liang, Julienne & Zulehner, Christine, 2017. "Bundling, consumer retention and entry: evidence from fixed broadband market," 14th ITS Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Kyoto 2017: Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society 168483, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    8. Howell, Bronwyn E. & Potgieter, Petrus H., 2017. "Triple-play (un)bundled pricing – cui bono?," 28th European Regional ITS Conference, Passau 2017 169466, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    9. Jeffrey Prince & Shane Greenstein, 2017. "Measuring Consumer Preferences for Video Content Provision via Cord‐Cutting Behavior," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 293-317, June.
    10. Stephanie Lee, 2017. "Does Bundling Decrease the Probability of Switching Telecommunications Service Providers?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 50(3), pages 303-322, May.
    11. Kim, Moon-Koo & Park, Myeong-Cheol & Lee, Duk Hee & Park, Jong-Hyun, 2017. "Determinants of the subscription to bundled services and their effect on customer retention in the Korean communications sector," 14th ITS Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Kyoto 2017: Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society 168501, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    12. Calzada, Joan & García-Mariñoso, Begoña & Suárez, David, 2023. "Do telecommunications prices depend on consumer engagement?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    13. Prince, Jeffrey T., 2019. "A paradigm for assessing the scope and performance of predictive analytics," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 7-13.
    14. Bronwyn E. Howell & Petrus H. Potgieter, 2018. "Bundles of trouble: Can competition law adapt to digital pricing innovation?," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 19(1-2), pages 3-24, March.
    15. Kim, Moon-Koo & Park, Myeong-Cheol & Lee, Duk Hee & Park, Jong-Hyun, 2019. "Determinants of subscriptions to communications service bundles and their effects on customer retention in Korea," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9).
    16. Ilona Bondos & Marcin Lipowski, 2016. "Service Packages – Attractiveness Has Many Faces," Eurasian Journal of Business and Management, Eurasian Publications, vol. 4(1), pages 1-10.
    17. Sobolewski, Maciej & Kopczewski, Tomasz, 2017. "Estimating demand for fixed-line telecommunication bundles," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 227-241.
    18. Yu, Eun & Jung, Jaemin, 2018. "Towards Quadruple-Play Service: Both Individual and Household Level Analyses on Mobile Bundle," 29th European Regional ITS Conference, Trento 2018 184972, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    19. García-Mariñoso, Begoña & Suárez, David, 2019. "Switching mobile operators: Evidence about consumers’ behavior from a longitudinal survey," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 426-433.
    20. Vithala R. Rao & Gary J. Russell & Hemant Bhargava & Alan Cooke & Tim Derdenger & Hwang Kim & Nanda Kumar & Irwin Levin & Yu Ma & Nitin Mehta & John Pracejus & R. Venkatesh, 2018. "Emerging Trends in Product Bundling: Investigating Consumer Choice and Firm Behavior," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 5(1), pages 107-120, March.
    21. Marjan Izadpanah & Ali Vaezi, 2023. "A Bundle Pricing Approach for Mobile Telecommunication Services: Method and Data Analysis," Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(3), pages 7-25, September.
    22. Hugo Ribeiro & Belém Barbosa & António C. Moreira & Ricardo Rodrigues, 2024. "A closer look at customer experience with bundle telecommunication services and its impacts on satisfaction and switching intention," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(3), pages 668-686, September.
    23. Howell, Bronwyn E. & Potgieter, Petrus H., 2019. "Bagging bundle benefits in broadband and media mergers: Lessons from Sky/Vodafone for antitrust analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 128-139.
    24. Tim Burnett, 2014. "The Impact of Service Bundling on Consumer Switching Behaviour: Evidence from UK Communication Markets," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 14/321, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bronwyn E. Howell & Petrus H. Potgieter, 2018. "Bundles of trouble: Can competition law adapt to digital pricing innovation?," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 19(1-2), pages 3-24, March.
    2. Howell, Bronwyn E. & Potgieter, Petrus H., 2019. "Bagging bundle benefits in broadband and media mergers: Lessons from Sky/Vodafone for antitrust analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 128-139.
    3. Andrea Mantovani, 2013. "The Strategic Effect of Bundling: A New Perspective," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 42(1), pages 25-43, February.
    4. Jidong Zhou, 2017. "Competitive Bundling," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 145-172, January.
    5. Howell, Bronwyn E & Potgieter, Petrus H., 2017. "Competition and vertical/agglomeration effects in media mergers: bagging bundle benefits," 14th ITS Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Kyoto 2017: Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society 168487, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    6. Stole, Lars A., 2007. "Price Discrimination and Competition," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 2221-2299, Elsevier.
    7. Ahn Illtae & Yoon Kiho, 2012. "Competitive Mixed Bundling of Vertically Differentiated Products," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-54, November.
    8. Sang‐Hyun Kim & Jong‐Hee Hahn, 2022. "On the profitability of interfirm bundling in oligopolies," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 657-673, August.
    9. Akifumi Ishihara & Noriyuki Yanagawa, 2013. "Dark Sides of Patent Pools with Compulsory Independent Licensing," CARF F-Series CARF-F-318, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    10. Gregory Crawford, 2008. "The discriminatory incentives to bundle in the cable television industry," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 41-78, March.
    11. Vaubourg, Anne-Gael, 2006. "Differentiation and discrimination in a duopoly with two bundles," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 753-762, July.
    12. Jihui Chen & Qiang Fu, 2017. "Do exclusivity arrangements harm consumers?," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 311-339, June.
    13. Mark Armstrong, 2016. "Nonlinear Pricing," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 583-614, October.
    14. Katherine Ho & Justin Ho & Julie Holland Mortimer, 2012. "The Use of Full-Line Forcing Contracts in the Video Rental Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 686-719, April.
    15. Juan-Pablo Montero & Esperanza Johnson, 2012. "Multimarket Contact, Bundling and Collusive Behavior," Documentos de Trabajo 420, Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile..
    16. Alessandro Avenali & Anna D’Annunzio & Pierfrancesco Reverberi, 2013. "Bundling, Competition and Quality Investment: A Welfare Analysis," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 43(3), pages 221-241, November.
    17. Jeffrey Prince & Shane Greenstein, 2017. "Measuring Consumer Preferences for Video Content Provision via Cord‐Cutting Behavior," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 293-317, June.
    18. Gayer, Amit & Shy, Oz, 2016. "A welfare evaluation of tying strategies," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 623-637.
    19. Chun‐Hui Miao, 2010. "Tying, Compatibility And Planned Obsolescence," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 579-606, September.
    20. Barry Nalebuff, 1999. "Bundling," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm126, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Dec 2000.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L0 - Industrial Organization - - General
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • L96 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Telecommunications

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jemstr:v:23:y:2014:i:4:p:839-875. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/journals/JEMS/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.