Benjamin Krischan Schulte develops a process-model of consumer lock-in in service relationships
by connecting three areas of research: path dependence consumer behavior and service
relationship marketing. He defines consumer lock-in as a situation of a potentially unaware
inability to switch from or exit a consumption process due to entrenchment with increasing
barriers on the individual and or social level. Switching barriers are elaborated as consumer
lock-in mechanisms. The resulting process model is outlined and empirically examined in an
explorative panel study of a service relationship process in higher education. The author´s
findings support the presence of consumer lock-in in services as an idiosyncratic process of
gradual entrapment. The phenomenon has relevance for researchers and practitioners in complex
service relationships where lock-in was found to be a likely occurrence but difficult to
grasp.
