Thomas A. Burnham

 
Marketing Department                                                        Office: (408) 554-5453
Santa Clara University Fax: (408) 554-5056
500 El Camino Real tburnham@scu.edu
Santa Clara, CA 95053

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EDUCATION

1998             The University of Texas at Austin Graduate School of Business, Ph.D. in Marketing, Concentration:  Marketing strategy and marketing management
1988 Rice University, Bachelor of Arts (cum laude),  Major: Managerial Studies Minor: Spanish

 

DISSERTATION

Title: "Measuring and Managing Consumer Switching Costs to Improve Retention in Continuous Services"

Chair: Vijay Mahajan

Synopsis: Understanding the drivers of customer loyalty is a top priority of both marketing researchers (MSI 1996) and industry practitioners. This research lays the groundwork for measuring customer switching costs and managing them as a tool to improve customer retention. It investigates the nature of switching costs, their primary antecedents, and the role they play in retaining continuous service customers.

The work is presented as three studies. The first study develops a tool for comprehensively measuring service consumers’ switching costs and derives a parsimonious framework for conceptualizing the types of switching costs that service customers perceive. The second study investigates the effect that a number of key antecedents have on these switching costs. The third study investigates how these switching costs, in conjunction with consumers' satisfaction with a service provider, influence consumers’ intentions to stay with an incumbent service provider.

The findings suggest that service consumers perceive three major types of switching costs: procedural switching costs, financial switching costs and relational switching costs. These switching costs may be managed by managing consumers’ perceptions of the complexity of the services and the heterogeneity among service providers, by managing consumers’ utilization of the various features offered by service providers, and by selecting customers based upon their level of experience with other service providers and their experience with the switching process. Consumers’ procedural and relational switching costs, in turn, may increase their intentions to stay with an incumbent provider, even when competing providers offer financial switching incentives. However when a competing provider offers services that consumers’ perceive to be satisfying and also offers a financial switching incentive, consumers’ satisfaction with the incumbent provider becomes critical for retention.

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My primary research interests focus on the strategic management of customer retention and customer value. Existing dissertation work establishes a basis for extended research on the effects of switching costs and their management. Additional research interests include the value that firms derive from (a) managing customer involvement in the design and provision of services, and from (b) managing the skills learned by customers as they use complex technological products.

 

ACADEMIC HONORS

1997 The State Farm Companies Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Award

A nationwide competitive award of $10,000 granted on the basis of the academic contribution and the managerial value of the dissertation.

   
1997 The University of Texas Continuing Graduate Fellowship

A university-wide competitive academic fellowship of $11,000 plus tuition granted on the basis of academic contributions and achievement.
   
1997 Special Research Grant from the University Research Institute at the University of Texas (in collaboration with Vijay Mahajan).
   
1996 Dissertation support from the Eugene and Dora Bonham Fund at the University of Texas.
   
1995 Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
   
1993 - 95 The University of Texas Preemptive Fellowship
   
1988 Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society

 

PUBLICATION

• Burnham, Thomas (1996) "Developing Customers, Products, and Markets for Services." Edited conference summary published as MSI Report 96-100.

 

WORK IN PROGRESS

• Mukherjee, Ashesh, and Thomas Burnham (1997), "A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing: The Confusion Effect in Learning Computer Software." This study illuminates some unexplored pitfalls in consumer learning of computer software. It was presented in the working paper track of the Association for Consumer Research Conference, and will be expanded and targeted towards the Journal of Consumer Research.

 

CONFERENCES

 

1997 Presenter at The Nebraska Doctoral Symposium, The University of Nebraska.

Paper: "Managing Customer Retention in Relationship Services: A Model of Customer Switching Costs and their Antecedents"
   
1995 Editor of conference summary for "Developing Customers, Products and Markets for Services," the Marketing Science Institute, Boston.
   
1995 Participant in the Marketing Technologies Symposium, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
   
1995 Participant in the Frontiers in Services Conference, Vanderbilt University.
   
1995 Presenter at the Internationalization of Marketing Conference, The University of Texas at Austin.

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Fall, 1998 MBA Teaching Experience

Teaching Marketing Decision Models using Marketing Engineering software tools to two MBA class sections at Santa Clara University
   
1997 MBA Course Design

Assisted Dr. Vijay Mahajan in developing and teaching a new software tool-based course Marketing Analysis and Decision Making in an Information Age. Overall evaluation: 4.32 / 5.00
   
1996 Executive Education

Developed and taught a week-long International Marketing executive development seminar (in Spanish). Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
   
1995 Undergraduate Course Development

Developed the syllabus for a new undergraduate marketing course as part of a seminar on teaching skills. The new course analyzes the strategic and tactical implications of current changes in the technological landscape.

 

TEACHING INTERESTS

• Marketing Strategy    (involving strategy simulation games such as MARKSTRAT)
• Marketing Decision Making in an Information Age  (using the Marketing Engineering software by Gary Lilien and Arvind Rangaswami)
• Marketing Research / Marketing Information & Analysis
• Marketing of High-Tech Products
• Services Marketing
• International Marketing

 

INDUSTRY WORK EXPERIENCE

   
1990-1993 Strategic Reporting, MCI Telecommunications.

Washington, D.C. and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Developed a system to summarize vital company statistics for the CEO and key management on a weekly basis. Developed training materials and trained employees nationwide to use MCI's internal budgeting system.
   
1988-1990 Management Consulting, The United States Peace Corps.

Cooperativa Jhechapyra, Paraguay.

Trained the management and employees of a 450 member agricultural cooperative in organizational and accounting skills. Guided the formalization of job descriptions, employee regulations, and organizational structures. Implemented a departmentally coded accounting system and fostered the use of monthly financial statements and budgets.


LANGUAGES

    • Fluent Spanish

    • Conversational Guarani