Item Recommendation with Evolving User Preferences and Experience

Current recommender systems exploit user and item similarities by collaborative filtering. Some advanced methods also consider the temporal evolution of item ratings as a global background process. However, all prior methods disregard the individual evolution of a user's experience level and how this is expressed in the user's writing in a review community. In this paper, we model the joint evolution of user experience, interest in specific item facets, writing style, and rating behavior. This way we can generate individual recommendations that take into account the user's maturity level (e.g., recommending art movies rather than blockbusters for a cinematography expert). As only item ratings and review texts are observables, we capture the user's experience and interests in a latent model learned from her reviews, vocabulary and writing style. We develop a generative HMM-LDA model to trace user evolution, where the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) traces her latent experience progressing over time -- with solely user reviews and ratings as observables over time. The facets of a user's interest are drawn from a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model derived from her reviews, as a function of her (again latent) experience level. In experiments with five real-world datasets, we show that our model improves the rating prediction over state-of-the-art baselines, by a substantial margin. We also show, in a use-case study, that our model performs well in the assessment of user experience levels

Historical wines : developing a marketing concept to promote portuguese wines

Although Portuguese wine exports have been increasing, national wine consumption has not been following a similar trend. Not only is there a growing number of new brands and products in the market, which can difficult consumer choice, but wine itself has been losing market share to other beverages, particularly beer. It is then necessary to develop marketing strategies that reduce information asymmetries between domestic wine sellers and buyers and convert wine drinking in act of refined culture and status. This dissertation intends to explore the sales potential of a branding concept centred in the historical character of high-quality domestic wines: the Historical Wines of Portugal. To this end, the attributes and benefits that could be associated to wines branded as historical by Portuguese consumers were identified through the performance of semi-structured interviews. These served as input for the design of an on-line questionnaire with a choice-based conjoint task (n=531), which was subsequently implemented to determine the effects of the branding strategy on consumer demand. Differences in the respondents’ level of category knowledge and involvement were taken into account during data analysis. Results indicate that the branding of Portuguese wines as historical should be based on their authentic character. They also show, however, that this association in wine authenticity differs according to the consumers’ level of category knowledge. For instance, region-of-origin certification and firm age appear to be more important for wine novices, whereas production method and firm ownership seem to be more relevant for wine experts. These results confirm the importance of segmenting wine markets based on category knowledge and indicate that the implementation of the Historical Wines of Portugal concept should lead to an increase in sales volume and value of Portuguese wines in the domestic market.Embora as exportações de vinho Português tenham vindo a alcançar uma posição favorável no mercado internacional, o consumo doméstico de vinho Português não tem vindo a seguir a mesma tendência. Não só existe um grande número de marcas e produtos no mercado, o que pode dificultar a escolha do consumidor, mas também o próprio produto tem vindo a perder quota de mercado relativamente a produtos substitutos, em particular a cerveja. Torna-se deste modo necessário desenvolver estratégias de marketing capazes de reduzir as assimetrias de informação entre produtores e consumidores de vinho nacionais e de converter o acto de consumir vinho num símbolo de cultura e prestígio. Esta dissertação pretende explorar o potencial de vendas, de um conceito de marketing, focando-se nas características históricas de vinhos domésticos de grande qualidade: os Vinhos Históricos de Portugal. Para este fim, os atributos e benefícios que poderiam estar associados a vinhos reconhecidos como históricos por consumidores portugueses foram identificados através da realização de entrevistas semi-estruturadas. Com esta informação foi possível construir um questionário online com uma choice-based conjoint analysis (n=531), que foi subsequentemente implementado para determinar os efeitos de uma estratégia de marketing na procura do consumidor. Diferenças nos níveis de conhecimento e envolvimento dos respondentes foram considerados durante a análise de dados. Os resultados indicam que a promoção de vinhos portugueses como Vinhos Históricos deve ser baseada nas características de autenticidade do produto. No entanto, os resultados também demonstram que esta associação à autenticidade do vinho difere de acordo com o nível de conhecimento que os consumidores têm na categoria. Por exemplo, certificado de região de origem e a idade da empresa produtora revelam ser mais importantes para consumidores mais novatos em vinho, enquanto o método de produção e a reputação da empresa produtora os mais importantes para especialistas no produto. Estes resultados confirmam a importância de segmentar o mercado de vinho baseado no conhecimento que os consumidores têm no produto e indicam que uma implementação de um conceito de Vinhos Históricos de Portugal deverá levar a um aumento das vendas em volume e valor dos vinhos Portugueses no mercado nacional

Online clothing reselling platforms in Italy - testing the preferred attributes through conjoint analysis

This research project focuses on understanding the consumer’s preferences for the second cloth ing platform known as Vinted, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, and Zalando Second-hand. The chosen market for this study is Italy due to its’ popularity in fashion. The conjoint analysis technique was applied, including other analyses such as cluster analysis and perceptual maps to better identify consumers’ perceptions and preferences of these platforms. Several surveys and interviews were conducted with experts and consumers. The main findings were that con sumers preferred product prices, buyer protection, and, additional fees as important features while using these platforms

Interdisciplinary Approach to Winepreferences: Case of North Croatia

The wine market in the world is well developed, and the countries at the very top of production are making great efforts to maintain their leading position. Traditional cultures and autochthonous sorts are especially valued, and many tourists are willing to pay well for this uniqueness and quality, which is why wine tourism has been developing more and more in the last 20 years. Thus, the consumption of wine is combined with the gastronomy, hospitality, viticulture and nature of an area and thus creates a certain harmony. This article aims to investigate the preferences of wine consumers in the area of North Croatia. Due to complexity of human behaviour, consumer preferences have an interdisciplinary dimension which must are considered in this article. Research results show the profile and preferences of wine consumers in North Croatia. Both of the research propositions are confirmed with the chi-square test. The article briefly presents the history and development of wine production, the main characteristics of wine consumers and wine consumption. It analyses the import and export of wine to the Croatian market. Also, the current state and trends of the wine market worldwide and in Croatia are described. Results are relevant for the providers of tourism services in North Croatia

Diversity and Philanthropy at African American Museums

Diversity and Philanthropy at African American Museums is the first scholarly book to analyze contemporary African American museums from a multifaceted perspective. While it puts a spotlight on the issues and challenges related to racial politics that black museums collectively face in the 21st century, it also shines a light on how they intersect with corporate culture, youth culture, and the broader cultural world. Turning the lens to philanthropy in the contemporary era, Banks throws light on the establishment side of African American museums and demonstrates how this contrasts with their grassroots foundations. Drawing on over 80 in-depth interviews with trustees and other supporters of African American museums across the United States, this book offers an inside look at the world of cultural philanthropy. While patrons are bound together by being among the distinct group of cultural philanthropists who support black museums, the motivations and meanings underlying their giving depart in both subtle and considerable ways depending on race and ethnicity, profession, generation, and lifestyle. Revealing not only why black museums matter in the eyes of supporters, the book also complicates the conventional view that social class drives giving to cultural nonprofits. It also paints a vivid portrait of how diversity colors cultural philanthropy, and philanthropy more broadly, in the 21st century. Diversity and Philanthropy at African American Museums will be a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners engaged with African American heritage. It will also offer important insights for academics, as well as cultural administrators, nonprofit leaders, and fundraisers who are concerned with philanthropy and diversity