The Magnitude of Switching Costs for Corporate Antivirus Software Switching Decision

Today’s businesses environment is forcing companies to become increasingly more efficient in applying Internet technology to conduct transactions. AS the possibility of infection by computer virus is much greater now than ever before, businesses search for appropriate corporate antivirus software to safeguard their computer systems. This paper considers corporate antivirus software switching as one of the major security selection problem and proposes possible avenues for software switching decision and management. In conceptual model, we draw upon switching costs where transaction costs, learning costs, and artificial costs were examined as main costs for software switching decision. Our findings shown only two out of three types of switching costs have influence over corporate antivirus software switching decisions. Despite the existence of switching costs, businesses continue to repeat software switching because the perceived risks of security threats are much greater than the switching cost itself. Furthermore, we examine various approaches to the cost of switching and then propose an index map to evaluate switching decision. Five sets of propositions are advanced to help guide this research.