Pulled, Not Pushed: A Push–Pull–Mooring Analysis of Switching Intention toward Digital-Only Banks in Indonesia

Digital-only banks now compete directly with the mobile channels of established banks, yet most research still asks why customers adopt them rather than why customers leave an incumbent for one. This study applies the push–pull–mooring (PPM) framework to switching intention toward digital-only banks in Indonesia. Perceived service quality of the incumbent bank is modelled as the push factor, relative advantage and convenience as the pull factor, and switching cost and trust as mooring factors acting both directly and as moderators. Survey data were collected from 415 Indonesian bank customers aged 18 and over who use internet banking, mobile banking, or a digital-only bank account, and analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling. Attraction outweighs dissatisfaction by a wide margin. Both factors raise switching intention, but the pull factor does so roughly five times as strongly as the push factor (β = 0.470 against β = 0.091, both p ≤ 0.002). Switching cost (β = 0.074, p = 0.006) and trust (β = 0.389, p < 0.001) also have positive direct effects. Only one of the four moderating effects is significant: switching cost weakens the link between the push factor and switching intention (β = −0.106, p = 0.001) while leaving the pull path untouched. Trust moderates neither path. The model explains 80.7 per cent of the variance in switching intention. Customers in this market appear to be pulled toward digital-only banks rather than pushed out of incumbents, the mooring factors act on dissatisfaction rather than on attraction, and trust functions as a general precondition for digital banking rather than as a barrier specific to any one provider.

Management, Marketing Management

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