Retail clients latent segments

Latent Segments Models (LSM) are commonly used as an approach for market segmentation. When using LSM, several criteria are available to determine the number of segments. However, it is not established which criteria are more adequate when dealing with a specific application. Since most market segmentation problems involve the simultaneous use of categorical and continuous base variables, it is particularly useful to select the best criteria when dealing with LSM with mixed type base variables. We first present an empirical test, which provides the ranking of several information criteria for model selection based on ten mixed data sets. As a result, the ICL-BIC, BIC, CAIC and L criteria are selected as the best performing criteria in the estimation of mixed mixture models. We then present an application concerning a retail chain clients' segmentation. The best information criteria yield two segments: Preferential Clients and Occasional Clients.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Aprendizagem, formação e práticas de arte em alunos do ensino secundário artístico: um estudo de caso

O Ensino Artístico é um dos ramos do ensino menos estudados e a sua importância é determinante no entendimento que temos do percurso dos jovens que pretendem ser artistas. A presente comunicação resulta da análise dos dados resultantes da aplicação de um questionário em 2007 a 252 estudantes da Escola Secundária Artística António Arroio, em Lisboa, sendo os seus objectivos principais conhecer as suas actividades artísticas, compreender quais as suas motivações, expectativas de vida, e quais as representações que têm da arte e da vida artística. Numa ligação de aprendizagens formais, interesses culturais e recreativos desenvolvidos fora do sistema escolar, é possível formar um retrato do trajecto destes jovens, na tentativa de se tornarem artistas e construírem uma carreira artística

Food Consumption, Food Chains and Market Evolution in São Tomé e Principe: Case Study in Sub-Sahara Africa

São Tomé e Principe is a small country in the middle of the Atlantic and exactly located at the Equator. It is a country where food consumption has been mainly dependent upon local production (where nature is very exuberant), but where imports, donations and globalization are determinant elements in consumption changes in the last decades.This article provides an analysis of the most significant changes in the last decades, showing how local product consumption is associated with lower income households, how recent improvements are maintaining the local consumption basis in many cases, and also how food markets are missing improvements with big price differences across different regions. This behavior is consistent with many problems in market performance, showing how important can be adequate technical support.Market problems are not the only important constraint for supply growth and food chain development but provide evidence of the need for better food policy and technical intervention to improve production systems while, at the same time, providing a better use of local resources and of the international trade/cooperation for better quality of live and food security

Policy Effects on the Quality of Public Health Care: Evaluating Portuguese Public Hospitals’ Quality through Customers’ Views

In this paper, public health care administration issues are reviewed and public hospital patients’ views on quality of health care are empirically tested. The purpose is to support the recommendation of new public policies that lead to better performance, if necessary. Hospital patients’ views on service quality were assessed through a questionnaire to estimate a global customer satisfaction measure. We argue that customer satisfaction should be measured through multiple indicators, as a latent variable. Thus, we considered the latent segment models (LSM) approach to assess customer service satisfaction. We found a two segment latent structure: segment 1, the satisfied, with 48 percent of patients, mostly male and middle-aged patients; and segment 2, the unsatisfied, with 52 percent of patients, mostly female and youngest/oldest patients.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio