An investigation into switching barriers : the case of individual investors versus institutional investors

This paper examines the extent to which both individual and institutional investors would switch from one stockbroker to another and the factors that would encourage them to stay loyal with their brokers. A sample of 131 individual investors and 28 companies were successfully interviewed through the mail survey technique over a two-month period. It was found that switching costs and barriers were an obstacle for individual investors to switch to other stockbrokers while for institutional investors, these did not represent an obstacle to switch to alternative stockbrokers.