Customer Lock-In
American Companies Expect Their Customers To Stay Much Longer. That May Be Making the Economy Less Competitive
In new research, Li Azinovic-Yang, John D. Kepler, Ava E. Speros, and Christopher R. Stewart find that over the last two decades, companies in the United States have grown to expect customer relationships to last longer, mostly due to higher costs associated with switching to competitors’ products. Over the long term, this lock-in reduces competition and consumer welfare.
