Application of artificial neural network in market segmentation: A review on recent trends

Despite the significance of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithm to market segmentation, there is a need of a comprehensive literature review and a classification system for it towards identification of future trend of market segmentation research. The present work is the first identifiable academic literature review of the application of neural network based techniques to segmentation. Our study has provided an academic database of literature between the periods of 2000-2010 and proposed a classification scheme for the articles. One thousands (1000) articles have been identified, and around 100 relevant selected articles have been subsequently reviewed and classified based on the major focus of each paper. Findings of this study indicated that the research area of ANN based applications are receiving most research attention and self organizing map based applications are second in position to be used in segmentation. The commonly used models for market segmentation are data mining, intelligent system etc. Our analysis furnishes a roadmap to guide future research and aid knowledge accretion and establishment pertaining to the application of ANN based techniques in market segmentation. Thus the present work will significantly contribute to both the industry and academic research in business and marketing as a sustainable valuable knowledge source of market segmentation with the future trend of ANN application in segmentation.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures,3 Table

Knowledge Graph based Question and Answer System for Cosmetic Domain

With the development of E-commerce, the requirements of customers for products become more detailed, and the workload of customer service consultants will increase massively. However, the manufacturer is not obliged to provide specific product ingredients on the website. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a KBQA system to relieve the pressure of online customer service and effectively help customers to find suitable skincare production. For the cosmetic filed, the different basic cosmetics may have varied effects depending on its ingredients. In this paper, we utilize CosDNA website and online cosmetic websites to construct a cosmetic product knowledge graph to broaden the relationship between cosmetics, ingredients, skin type, and effects. Besides, we build the question answering system based on the cosmetic knowledge graph to allow users to understand product details directly and make the decision quickly

Understanding consumers’ ethical decision-making process : assessment of antecedents and consequences of consumer’s explicit and implicit perception and behavior towards ethical consumption

Soziale und ökologische Anliegen erfahren bei allen Austauschprozessen eine immer höhere Relevanz. Auch beim Konsum achten immer mehr Menschen auf die ökologische und soziale Verträglichkeit der konsumierten Produkte und Marken und wollen mit ihren Konsumentscheidungen ein Zeichen gegen unethisches Handeln setzen. Dadurch bietet der Konsum heutzutage ein Mittel, mit dem Konsumenten ihre ethischen Vorstellungen vertreten und repräsentieren können. Während Konsumenten jedoch in einigen Handlungsbereichen bewusst entsprechend ihren ethischen Vorstellungen nach handeln, geraten in anderen Handlungsbereichen die selbigen ethischen Grundsätze in den Hintergrund und erfahren kaum oder teilweise keine Relevanz bei der Konsumentscheidung. Daher stellt sich die Frage, ob es den ethischen Konsumenten überhaupt gibt. Zahlreiche Unternehmen passen sich den ethischen Grundsätzen und Vorstellungen der Konsumenten an und versuchen Ihre Angebote an diese Vorstellungen auszurichten. Da scheinbar allein die ausgesprochenen ethischen Vorstellungen der Konsumenten kein ausreichendes Merkmal sind, um entsprechende Handlungen zu tätigen, ist ein ausgeprägteres Verständnis ethischer Konsumentscheidungen und ihrer Determinanten erforderlich. Diesem Ziel widmet sich die vorliegende Dissertation. Im ersten Modul, welches aus drei Forschungsartikeln besteht, werden zunächst Treiber und Folgen des ethischen Konsums identifiziert und Ihre Beziehung zueinander diskutiert. Hierbei werden insbesondere psychographische Merkmale der Konsumenten erörtert, sowie produkt-, marken- und kontextabhängige Faktoren adressiert. Zudem wird hier ein Bezug zwischen dem Luxuskonsum und dem ethischen Konsum hergestellt. Das zweite Modul besteht aus insgesamt zwei Forschungsbeiträgen und setzt sich mit der Förderung nachhaltigen Konsums auseinander. Hierbei wird insbesondere auf die Gestaltung von Kommunikationsmaßnahmen und Kanälen eingegangen, wobei das Offline- sowie das Online-Umfeld einbezogen wird. Letzteres in Form eines Online Shops für fair gehandelten Kaffee. Da Menschen Informationen über explizite und implizite Prozesse verarbeiten und Entscheidungen oftmals unbewusst getroffen werden, werden Methoden der neuroökonomischen Forschung in Modul 2 integriert, um eben diese unbewussten Prozesse zu erfassen und so die ganzheitliche Wirkung der Maßnahmen erfassen zu können. Die Ergebnisse der verschiedenen Forschungsartikel veranschaulichen die Vielfältigkeit der Faktoren, denen ethische Konsumhandlungen unterliegen. Sämtliche Treiber müssen, je nach Anwendungskontext, in die Erklärung des ethischen Konsumentenverhaltens einbezogen werden. Die Erkenntnisse liefern für kommerzielle sowie nicht-kommerzielle Unternehmen (Non-Profit-Organisationen) wertvolle praktische Implikationen, um ihre Zielgruppe besser zu verstehen und um ihre Produkte und Kommunikationsmaßnahmen effizient gestalten und wirksam umzusetzen zu können. Für zukünftige Forschungsrichtungen liefert die Dissertation mehrere potenzielle Ansätze. Besonders zu verfolgen sind jene, die eine ganzheitlichere Erklärung ethischen Konsums anstreben und mögliche Barrieren auf Seiten der Konsumenten adressieren. Hierbei kann die Einbindung modernen Methoden der Neuroökonomie einen erheblichen Beitrag zur Erklärung des Entscheidungsprozesses bieten

Analytical customer relationship management in retailing supported by data mining techniques

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Investigating factors that influence the purchase behaviour of green cosmetic products amongst female consumers in South Africa

Current generations have come to realise that their consumption of harmful products is what has contributed in the degradation of the environment. In an attempt to alleviate the environmental problems consumers have embraced the green purchasing behaviour. This notwithstanding, there has been an increase in the number of people that are eager to purchase green products, and there remains insufficient data that supports that the procurement of green products has increased, despite the environmental consciousness and the positive attitudes that consumers have towards green products. In the 21st century, female consumers are increasingly taking part in the economy. Particularly in the cosmetic industry, females have been identified to possess the largest purchasing power when compared to that of male consumers, but remains under-researched. The proposed study focused on addressing the impact of awareness, product information, product availability, environmental concern, perceived barriers, perceived price, and attitude on the purchasing intention of green cosmetic products amongst female consumers in South Africa to make green purchase decisions. The sample size for this research was 295 participants. The results revealed that only perceived price and attitude have a significant influence on purchase intention of green cosmetic products amongst females in South Africa. While awareness, product information, product availability, environmental concern and perceived barriers needed a mediating variable (attitude) to have an influence on the purchasing intention of green cosmetic products of female consumers in South Africa. This research study aid to the green literature since South Africa is in the green awakening stage. The research study also expanded on the Alphabet theory by introducing additional elements to framework, namely, product availability and perceived priced. The study offers useful insight for the managers and marketers who are venturing into the green cosmetic industry. Future research studies should focus on qualitative research that focus on specific green cosmetic category such as skin care, haircare and make up so as to gain an in-depth insight on the purchasing intention of the female consumers of the specific categories

Economic Complexity Unfolded: Interpretable Model for the Productive Structure of Economies

Economic complexity reflects the amount of knowledge that is embedded in the productive structure of an economy. It resides on the premise of hidden capabilities - fundamental endowments underlying the productive structure. In general, measuring the capabilities behind economic complexity directly is difficult, and indirect measures have been suggested which exploit the fact that the presence of the capabilities is expressed in a country's mix of products. We complement these studies by introducing a probabilistic framework which leverages Bayesian non-parametric techniques to extract the dominant features behind the comparative advantage in exported products. Based on economic evidence and trade data, we place a restricted Indian Buffet Process on the distribution of countries' capability endowment, appealing to a culinary metaphor to model the process of capability acquisition. The approach comes with a unique level of interpretability, as it produces a concise and economically plausible description of the instantiated capabilities

The Lawyer's Mind: Why a Twenty-First Century Legal Practice Will Not Thrive Using Nineteenth Century Thinking (With Thanks to George Lakoff)

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio

Testing the concept of Brand Personality in Spontaneous Associations - A critique on the insights provided by brand personality associations

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Marketing Research and CRMThe concept of Brand Personality has been explored considerably over the years. However, previous research seems to lack integration and, most importantly, practical applicability in Marketing. Our research explores the evolution of the concept, further extending the critique on the methodology of previous studies, and the integration and redundancy of brand personality in the studies of brand associations. In a free association study performed with fifteen brands from different categories, we successfully confirm that consumers rarely make personality associations spontaneously, while they tend to create a greater number of personality associations when conditioned to do so through projective methods