Personalised online sales using web usage data mining

Practically every major company with a retail operation has its own web site and online sales facilities. This paper describes a toolset that exploits web usage data mining techniques to identify customer Internet browsing patterns. These patterns are then used to underpin a personalised product recommendation system for online sales. Within the architecture, a Kohonen neural network or self-organizing map (SOM) has been trained for use both offline, to discover user group profiles, and in real-time to examine active user click stream data, make a match to a specific user group, and recommend a unique set of product browsing options appropriate to an individual user. Our work demonstrates that this approach can overcome the scalability problem that is common among these types of system. Our results also show that a personalised recommender system powered by the SOM predictive model is able to produce consistent recommendations

A qualitative study of stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment

Over two billion people are using the Internet at present, assisted by the mediating activities of software agents which deal with the diversity and complexity of information. There are, however, ethical issues due to the monitoring-and-surveillance, data mining and autonomous nature of software agents. Considering the context, this study aims to comprehend stakeholders' perspectives on the social network service environment in order to identify the main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services in the near future. Twenty-one stakeholders, belonging to three key stakeholder groups, were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy for unstandardised semi-structured e-mail interviews. The interview data were analysed using a qualitative content analysis method. It was possible to identify three main considerations for the design of software agents in social network services, which were classified into the following categories: comprehensive understanding of users' perception of privacy, user type recognition algorithms for software agent development and existing software agents enhancement

Using big data for customer centric marketing

This chapter deliberates on “big data” and provides a short overview of business intelligence and emerging analytics. It underlines the importance of data for customer-centricity in marketing. This contribution contends that businesses ought to engage in marketing automation tools and apply them to create relevant, targeted customer experiences. Today’s business increasingly rely on digital media and mobile technologies as on-demand, real-time marketing has become more personalised than ever. Therefore, companies and brands are striving to nurture fruitful and long lasting relationships with customers. In a nutshell, this chapter explains why companies should recognise the value of data analysis and mobile applications as tools that drive consumer insights and engagement. It suggests that a strategic approach to big data could drive consumer preferences and may also help to improve the organisational performance.peer-reviewe

The contribution of data mining to information science

The information explosion is a serious challenge for current information institutions. On the other hand, data mining, which is the search for valuable information in large volumes of data, is one of the solutions to face this challenge. In the past several years, data mining has made a significant contribution to the field of information science. This paper examines the impact of data mining by reviewing existing applications, including personalized environments, electronic commerce, and search engines. For these three types of application, how data mining can enhance their functions is discussed. The reader of this paper is expected to get an overview of the state of the art research associated with these applications. Furthermore, we identify the limitations of current work and raise several directions for future research

Alter ego, state of the art on user profiling: an overview of the most relevant organisational and behavioural aspects regarding User Profiling.

This report gives an overview of the most relevant organisational and\ud behavioural aspects regarding user profiling. It discusses not only the\ud most important aims of user profiling from both an organisation’s as\ud well as a user’s perspective, it will also discuss organisational motives\ud and barriers for user profiling and the most important conditions for\ud the success of user profiling. Finally recommendations are made and\ud suggestions for further research are given

A Design Functionality Study of IDM Web-Stores

One of the advantages of conducting business over the Internet is the ability to collect information about customer preferences in order to serve them accordingly. Personalisation provides a means of doing this. In this paper, we have attempted to study the effect of personalisation on the success of IDM web-stores. The major contribution of our paper is the extension of the IDM Platform Functionality Model of Srinivasan et al [24] to include personalisation. The second contribution is the investigation of six personalisation features that specify and describe this functionality in its various forms. We have used both quantitative and qualitative research techniques such as click-stream analysis and emphatic design in a focus group. Our findings suggest that personalisation is a significant component of IDM web-store design

Business information systems in Hungary

Nowadays the issue of information technology in business is moving into the centre of attention, which is also indicated by the fact that more and more companies, not accidentally, recognize its importance. Business information systems are not only fashionable – their application promotes more efficient operation of the company and also improves the supply of information to decisionmakers; applying such systems can also play an important role in helping companies to put greater emphasis on information technology in order to gain a competitive advantage. My aim was to present the circumstances of the decisions made about the introduction of business information systems and problems emerging during the introduction as well as to analyze the usage habits of companies applying these systems, and to explore the relation between the application of business information systems and the operational effectiveness of the business

Addendum to Informatics for Health 2017: Advancing both science and practice

This article presents presentation and poster abstracts that were mistakenly omitted from the original publication

IT usage for enhancing trade show performance: evidence from the aviation services

Purpose While trade shows remain an important customer relationship management (CRM) tool, recent advancements in information technology (IT) have raised concerns about the future of trade shows. This study aims to examine the antecedents and consequences of IT integration into trade shows. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a questionnaire-based survey with senior and middle managers in the aviation services, resulting in 135 valid responses from industry professionals. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Findings The findings demonstrate differential but significant impact of perceptions toward website design and firm motivations toward the integration IT in the three stages of trade shows marketing. The results also show significant impact of IT usage on the perceptions toward the accomplishment of trade show objectives. Further, the results vary according to the levels of experience of the professionals. Research limitations/implications This study did not account for the differences in perceptions toward IT implementation across personnel from different departments, such as IT, finance and operations management. In addition, it did not examine situational factors and individual characteristics as additional antecedents of IT usage in trade shows, including pricing, return on investment, convenience and the social media. Practical implications Exhibitors are advised to integrate IT in supporting pre-trade show activities to approach potential customers. Exhibitors should integrate electronic interactions and personal communications during the show to reduce the amount of unanswered customer queries, focusing on timeliness and accuracy of information content, ease of navigation and graphic attractiveness of corporate websites, as effective CRM tools. Originality/value This paper offers novel insights into hitherto unknown aspects of trade show performance. The results have managerial implications for adopting IT as a CRM tool for effective trade show management