17,443 research outputs found
Incorporating Profit Margins into Recommender Systems: A Randomized Field Experiment of Purchasing Behavior and Consumer Trust
A number of recent studies have proposed new recommender designs that incorporate firm-centric measures (e.g., the profit margins of products) along with consumer-centric measures (e.g., relevance of recommended products). These designs seek to maximize the long-term profits from recommender deployment without compromising customer trust. However, very little is known about how consumers might respond to recommender algorithms that account for product profitability. We tested the impact of deploying a profit-based recommender on its precision and usage, as well as customer purchasing and trust, with data from an online randomized field experiment. We found that the profit-based algorithm, despite potential concerns about its negative impact on consumers, is effective in retaining consumersâ usage and purchase levels at the same rate as a content-based recommender. We also found that the profit-based algorithm generated higher profits for the firm. Further, to measure trust, we issued a post-experiment survey to participants in the experiment; we found there were no significant differences in trust across treatment. We related the survey results to the accuracy and diversity of recommendations and found that accuracy and diversity were both positively and significantly related to trust. The study has broader implications for firms using recommenders as a marketing tool, in that the approach successfully addresses the relevance-profit tradeoff in a real-world context
Servitisation and value co-production in the UK music industry
Since the rise of music on the internet, record companies have reported falling sales of physical products. This has occurred at a time when technology has radically increased choice, availability and the opportunity for the consumer to purchase music. As the music industry has moved from a product to a service business model, has the loss of sales meant they have not taken their customers with them? This paper provides a description of different music consumers based upon quantitative analysis of consumer characteristics. The paper then undertakes an exploration of the relationship between the consumer groups and their purchasing preference in relation to intangible âserviceâ purchase such as downloaded music and the purchase of a tangible physical product such as CDs or vinyl. In addition, we analyse the relationship between consumer types and their propensity to actively engage with music
communities, such as through engagement with social media, and thus their willingness to coproduce greater value. Finally we explore the moderating effects of age and time devoted to listening to music on purchasing preferences and music discovery
IRA Disclosure Framing Effects on Purchase Decisions
This research examines the use of disclosures included in IRA advertisements to determine their impact on purchase decisions. Disclosures were manipulated through different framing language to examine the investorâs risk perception. The Hayes Process Model was used to test the significance of investor risk perception and risk propensity (investorâs likelihood to act on risk perception) related to framing manipulation and ultimately, the purchase decision. The level of risk propensity was then used to assess the impact on the purchase decision for investors with varying sophistication levels. Additionally, the investorâs sophistication level, determined via a series of investment questions, was also considered in examining the impact on the purchase decision. Demographic data such as investor investment experience, age, gender, education, marital status, and ethnicity, were also investigated. Results showed there was a strong mediated relationship between the sophistication level of the investor, the willingness to act on risk, and the likelihood to purchase an Individual Retirement Account (âIRAâ)
Acuity-based Nurse Staffing and the Impact on Patient Outcomes
The costs of healthcare in the United States are of national concern. The systematic review of the literature (SRL) explored the practice-focused nursing question regarding the relationship between the use of acuity-based staffing (ABS) models and positive patient outcomes. Analyzing the impact of ABS models on patient quality outcomes and the potential economic value could provide evidence essential for the healthcare executives responsible for fiscally prudent labor management and for creating an evidence-based business case for adequate, patient-centric nurse staffing. The synergy model for patient care and Covell\u27s nursing intellectual capital theory guided the doctoral project. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses systematic review process steps were completed to organize the SRL and report findings. A comprehensive review of the literature yielded 527 articles, with 5 studies that met inclusion criteria in the final review. Analysis and synthesis of the SRL identified several patient outcomes that were significantly correlated with ABS staffing, including medication errors, falls, patient safety incidents, missed care, and mortality. The current body of evidence was insufficiently robust to demonstrate ABS staffing was superior to other nurse staffing models. The implications of this project for positive social change include demonstrating a need for additional research on ABS and the impact of ABS on patient outcomes
Extroverts Tweet Differently from Introverts in Weibo
Being dominant factors driving the human actions, personalities can be
excellent indicators in predicting the offline and online behavior of different
individuals. However, because of the great expense and inevitable subjectivity
in questionnaires and surveys, it is challenging for conventional studies to
explore the connection between personality and behavior and gain insights in
the context of large amount individuals. Considering the more and more
important role of the online social media in daily communications, we argue
that the footprint of massive individuals, like tweets in Weibo, can be the
inspiring proxy to infer the personality and further understand its functions
in shaping the online human behavior. In this study, a map from self-reports of
personalities to online profiles of 293 active users in Weibo is established to
train a competent machine learning model, which then successfully identifies
over 7,000 users as extroverts or introverts. Systematical comparisons from
perspectives of tempo-spatial patterns, online activities, emotion expressions
and attitudes to virtual honor surprisingly disclose that the extrovert indeed
behaves differently from the introvert in Weibo. Our findings provide solid
evidence to justify the methodology of employing machine learning to
objectively study personalities of massive individuals and shed lights on
applications of probing personalities and corresponding behaviors solely
through online profiles.Comment: Datasets of this study can be freely downloaded through:
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4765150.v
Transaction-Driven Personalization: The Moderating Effects of Personality Traits
With transaction-driven personalization engines online merchants can use knowledge gained from an individual customerâs past transactions to match web content to the customerâs individual interests and preferences. Prior research in this area has focused on how to maximize knowledge mined from transaction logs to generate recommendations which are highly similar to the individualâs past preferences. However, it remains an empirical question as to whether a recommendation closely matched with previous transactions is most likely to influence choice behavior? In this study, we postulate that a recommendation closely matched with previous transactions may not be the most efficient in biasing an individual. In the consideration and choice process, an individualâs personality traits play a pivotal role in moderating the effect of personalized content. Drawing on prior work in marketing, we examine two key personality traits, need for cognition and variety seeking, and explore their effects on choice behavior in the context of transaction-driven personalization. Research hypotheses are tested using 2,294 pre-selected subjects in an online field experiment based on a ring tone download website. Our findings establish that personality traits of an individual moderate content consideration and choice. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed
Textbook piracy : exploring the decision to pirate or not
While much has been written about the consequences of the digitization of entertainment media
(music, movies, etc.) and the best strategies to cope with copyright infringement, there is still little
research on the effect of the digitization of books. This raises the question of how the publishing
industry can learn from the experience of the entertainment industry. As tablets and e-readers become
more prevalent, increasing the attractiveness of digital copies of textbooks and other materials, the
issue of copying will become increasingly salient for academic texts. Demand for academic books
differs from that of experience goods such as music, movies, or the wider range of books since the
primary consumers, students, see textbooks not as cultural items but as a learning tool.
This thesis investigates the key factors in studentsâ decision to acquire textbooks using panel data
from a survey of students at CatĂłlica-Lisbon School of Business Economics. We model the decision
to buy a textbook first using multinomial logit models in which the studentsâ choice depends not
only on the price and quality of the book but also their valuation of a textbook as a study tool. We
then attempt to measure each studentâs tendency to pirate and incorporate that estimate into the
multinomial model. The decision to pirate or not a given book seems to be based primarily on the
perceived usefulness of the book, more strongly than price
Marketing images and consumers' experiences in selling environments
In a well-functioning market, consumers exert choices not just in purchases of products but also in
selections of locations to enjoy shopping. Scholarly research has demonstrated that retail
atmospheres impact on shoppersâ pleasurable shopping experiences. Demonstrating the marketing
concept in action, shoppers consistently respond to this empowerment by for example, spending
more time shopping and spending more money in retail facilities that are perceived to offer a
pleasanter atmosphere and experience. This research pivots round an in-depth qualitative study that
evaluated the impact of a plasma screens and specific informational content on shopping centre
user behaviour. A phenomenological study of the effects of the medium, and the way in which
these systems influence behaviour, permitted a far deeper investigation of our sample group vis-Ă vis
increased browsing time and the propensity to spend. A series of eight focus discussions were
conducted with local user groups of varying age and gender. Key themes drawn from the group
discussions using axial coding indicated that the influence created by the images varied with
subjects and settings. The general consensus was that such âscreensâ created a certain ambience that
influenced the way our subjects felt about the selling environment under study. Moreover, for our
sample groups, there was clearly a link between the screened images and modern expectations of a
selling environment. The plasma screens provided added enjoyment to shoppersâ experiences,
providing them with more information enabling more informed shopping choices. The research
concludes with implications for strategic marketing, theory and practice
Financial Advice and Stock Market Participation
We introduce professional financial advice in households? choice to hold risky financial assets. Consistent with the predictions from a formal model, we present evidence that households? trust in financial advice only matters when their perceived own financial capability is low. Instead, for households with higher financial capability, only the perception of legal protection in financial markets matters for stock market participation. Our empirical analysis highlights economically significant differences in households? perception of their rights as consumers of financial services, even when their objective circumstances should not be much different.Financial Advice, Trust, Consumer Protection, Household Finance
- âŠ