(WP 2016-02) The Limits of Central Bank Forward Guidance under Learning

Central bank forward guidance emerged as a pertinent tool for monetary policymakers since the Great Recession. Nevertheless, the effects of forward guidance remain unclear. This paper investigates the effectiveness of forward guidance while relaxing two standard macroeconomic assumptions: rational expectations and frictionless financial markets. Agents forecast future macroeconomic variables via either the rational expectations hypothesis or a more plausible theory of expectations formation called adaptive learning. A standard Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model is extended to include the financial accelerator mechanism. The results show that the addition of financial frictions amplifies the differences between rational expectations and adaptive learning to forward guidance. The macroeconomic variables are overall more responsive to forward guidance under rational expectations than under adaptive learning. During a period of economic crisis (e.g. a recession), output under rational expectations displays more favorable responses to forward guidance than under adaptive learning. These differences are exacerbated when compared to a similar analysis without financial frictions. Thus, monetary policymakers should consider the way in which expectations and credit frictions are modeled when examining the effects of forward guidance

Surveys without Questions: A Reinforcement Learning Approach

The 'old world' instrument, survey, remains a tool of choice for firms to obtain ratings of satisfaction and experience that customers realize while interacting online with firms. While avenues for survey have evolved from emails and links to pop-ups while browsing, the deficiencies persist. These include - reliance on ratings of very few respondents to infer about all customers' online interactions; failing to capture a customer's interactions over time since the rating is a one-time snapshot; and inability to tie back customers' ratings to specific interactions because ratings provided relate to all interactions. To overcome these deficiencies we extract proxy ratings from clickstream data, typically collected for every customer's online interactions, by developing an approach based on Reinforcement Learning (RL). We introduce a new way to interpret values generated by the value function of RL, as proxy ratings. Our approach does not need any survey data for training. Yet, on validation against actual survey data, proxy ratings yield reasonable performance results. Additionally, we offer a new way to draw insights from values of the value function, which allow associating specific interactions to their proxy ratings. We introduce two new metrics to represent ratings - one, customer-level and the other, aggregate-level for click actions across customers. Both are defined around proportion of all pairwise, successive actions that show increase in proxy ratings. This intuitive customer-level metric enables gauging the dynamics of ratings over time and is a better predictor of purchase than customer ratings from survey. The aggregate-level metric allows pinpointing actions that help or hurt experience. In sum, proxy ratings computed unobtrusively from clickstream, for every action, for each customer, and for every session can offer interpretable and more insightful alternative to surveys.Comment: The Thirty-Third AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-19

Sales force impact on B-to-B brand equity: Conceptual framework and empirical test

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New Horizons for Airlines: Consumers’ Adoption of Metaverse - A Qualitative and Quantitative research

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Driven Marketing, specialization in Digital Marketing and AnalyticsMetaverse technology is increasing its relevance in this digital and connected world and airlines should decide what is their strategy and purpose to engage with consumers in this new dimension. Because the metaverse it’s a new technology, airlines must also understand the factors for its acceptance. Though the technology acceptance is already vastly investigated, the review of acceptance for metaverse technology is still reduced. This research intention is to provide an empirical study of the technology acceptance on an airline metaverse and contribute to the findings that reveal new opportunities to engage with consumers/ passengers. Following the literature review we based on a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework that proved to be the most suitable for the technology adoption dimension. This research focused on qualitative and quantitative analysis and our findings reveal the vision from an airline perspective and the factor of adoption of potential users. Qualitative analysis was based on 3 semi-structured interviews targeting airline experts followed by text mining and data analysis via IRAMUTEQ software. Concerning the quantitative analysis was based on a structured questionnaire that uses a convenience sampling technic. A total of 118 replies were collected and analyzed via SmartPLS4 software. The outcomes of this research are insightful and reveal that Gamification and Perceived Consumer Experience have positive and relevant effects on the intention to use the metaverse of an airline. Management contributions, future studies and academic insights are also present in the final section of the research

A comparison of social media marketing between B2B, B2C and mixed business models

This paper explores the implicit assumption in the growing body of literature that social media usage is fundamentally different in business-to-business (B2B) companies than in the extant business-to-consumer (B2C) literature. Sashi’s (2012) customer engagement cycle is utilized to compare B2B, B2C, Mixed B2B/B2C and B2B2C business model organizational practices in relation to social media usage, importance, and its perceived effectiveness as a communication channel. Utilizing 449 responses to an exploratory panel based survey instrument, we clearly identify differences in social media marketing usage and its perceived importance as a communications channel. In particular we identify distinct differences in the relationship between social media importance and the perceived effectiveness of social media marketing across business models. Our results indicate that B2B social media usage is distinct from B2C, Mixed and B2B2C business model approaches. Specifically B2B organizational members perceive social media to have a lower overall effectiveness as a channel and identify it as less important for relationship oriented usage than other business models

New Consumers' Behaviour Trends in the food world: A Marketing Perspective

Food has been part of human culture since the origin of the species. The human being has evolved alongside his ability to provide food for himself in ancient times, and today food and restaurant industry follows societal changes. Globalisation has spread food cultures worldwide, technological innovations have changed how we produce and consume our food, and ethical concerns have been raised towards the health of the food we eat and the sustainability of the sector. Marketing research has followed these changes closely (Earle, 1997; Santeramo et al., 2018) since humans daily deal with food consumption choices. One of the most relevant stimuli towards change has undoubtedly been represented by the challenges caused by climate change, which has pushed western society to question their modus operandi in food production and restaurant industries. The need for more environmentally sustainable food production processes has pushed the debate around novel foods, both inside and outside academia. The discussion has flourished in recent years following two significant streams: (i) the impact of food production in terms of environment and animal welfare, and (ii) the novel consumers' needs, specifically in terms of health and ethical concerns (Tuorila and Hartmann, 2020). Environmental sustainability, animal welfare (Ankamah-Yeboah et al., 2019), and pursuing a balance between demand for innovation and naturalness (Coppola et al., 2014) are what the market demands nowadays. Even if new food technologies and novel foods increase food quality, availability, safety, and sustainability (Davis et al., 2020), consumers may not accept them easily. This reaction may be driven by price, attachment to traditions, disgust, unnaturalness, unpleasant sensory expectations (Tuorila & Hartmann, 2020) or a short trust in the production process (Cox and Evans, 2008). On the other hand, technological innovations in the food and restaurant industry are widely accepted and widely used among westerners, like food delivery (Wen et al., 2022) and online reviews (DeNicolò et al., 2023) platforms. These are examples of how innovations represent another significant stimulus for changes in the food and restaurant industry. These have shaped the way consumers get informed on what and where to eat (Kwon et al., 2021) on a global scale, arriving up to the point in which, paradoxically, the excess of information provided by online reviews does not allow consumers to take an informed decision (Ganzaroli et al., 2017, 2020). Globalised trends in food cultures and the widespread use of online platforms are just two examples of how humankind, nowadays, is as interconnected as ever. However, is that so? Are we as equal in our eating habits as these findings suggest? This will be the starting point of the following dissertation, which aims to explore, from a marketing perspective, these new trends in the food world. From the similarities that customers display when deciding to dine out to how online reviews of restaurant relates to customers' perception of service quality, passing through consumers' dysfunctional traits in accepting a novel and more sustainable food, this dissertation will offer a discussion on these themes exploiting meta-analysis and quantitative methodologies.Food has been part of human culture since the origin of the species. The human being has evolved alongside his ability to provide food for himself in ancient times, and today food and restaurant industry follows societal changes. Globalisation has spread food cultures worldwide, technological innovations have changed how we produce and consume our food, and ethical concerns have been raised towards the health of the food we eat and the sustainability of the sector. Marketing research has followed these changes closely (Earle, 1997; Santeramo et al., 2018) since humans daily deal with food consumption choices. One of the most relevant stimuli towards change has undoubtedly been represented by the challenges caused by climate change, which has pushed western society to question their modus operandi in food production and restaurant industries. The need for more environmentally sustainable food production processes has pushed the debate around novel foods, both inside and outside academia. The discussion has flourished in recent years following two significant streams: (i) the impact of food production in terms of environment and animal welfare, and (ii) the novel consumers' needs, specifically in terms of health and ethical concerns (Tuorila and Hartmann, 2020). Environmental sustainability, animal welfare (Ankamah-Yeboah et al., 2019), and pursuing a balance between demand for innovation and naturalness (Coppola et al., 2014) are what the market demands nowadays. Even if new food technologies and novel foods increase food quality, availability, safety, and sustainability (Davis et al., 2020), consumers may not accept them easily. This reaction may be driven by price, attachment to traditions, disgust, unnaturalness, unpleasant sensory expectations (Tuorila & Hartmann, 2020) or a short trust in the production process (Cox and Evans, 2008). On the other hand, technological innovations in the food and restaurant industry are widely accepted and widely used among westerners, like food delivery (Wen et al., 2022) and online reviews (DeNicolò et al., 2023) platforms. These are examples of how innovations represent another significant stimulus for changes in the food and restaurant industry. These have shaped the way consumers get informed on what and where to eat (Kwon et al., 2021) on a global scale, arriving up to the point in which, paradoxically, the excess of information provided by online reviews does not allow consumers to take an informed decision (Ganzaroli et al., 2017, 2020). Globalised trends in food cultures and the widespread use of online platforms are just two examples of how humankind, nowadays, is as interconnected as ever. However, is that so? Are we as equal in our eating habits as these findings suggest? This will be the starting point of the following dissertation, which aims to explore, from a marketing perspective, these new trends in the food world. From the similarities that customers display when deciding to dine out to how online reviews of restaurant relates to customers' perception of service quality, passing through consumers' dysfunctional traits in accepting a novel and more sustainable food, this dissertation will offer a discussion on these themes exploiting meta-analysis and quantitative methodologies

Loyalty towards online games, gaming addiction, and purchase intention towards online mobile in-game features

The most important stream of game developers' revenue is arguably via gamer's in-game purchases. Previous literature has identified a number of strong determinants of online purchase intention including values, consumer experience, lifestyle, security, perceived risk, information, and subjective norms and behavioural control. The present study examined the relationship between online mobile gaming addiction and loyalty towards purchase intention of online mobile game in-game apps. The present study comprised 430 students from two major Indian universities who completed a short 28-item survey focusing on three variables (i.e., addiction, loyalty towards online games, and purchase intention towards online mobile in-game features). The results demonstrated that (i) online mobile game addiction shared a significant positive relationship with online mobile game loyalty; (ii) online mobile game addiction had a positive relationship with the purchase of online mobile in-game apps, and (iii) online mobile game loyalty increased game users' intention to purchase online mobile in-game apps. The present study is the first to investigate loyalty and gaming addiction in relation to the purchase of in-game apps. Game developers will always want to facilitate loyalty among its clientele. However, if the engagement strategies used by gaming operators facilitate addiction as a way of increasing purchase intention of online mobile game in-game apps, this raises serious ethical questions which the gaming industry need to address as part of its corporate social responsibility strategy

How a Cross-Media Strategy – Out Of Home And Mobile - Affects Brand Trust: Understanding The Impact Of Privacy Concerns

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Marketing IntelligenceThe current project attempts to comprehend how brand trust is influenced by a cross-media approach involving mobile and out-of-home (OOH) marketing, as well as the impact mediated by privacy concerns. This study employed an online survey with 289 valid responses. To assess their behavior in various scenarios, the survey asked respondents whether they owned a smartphone and whether mobile ads were targeted at them. To evaluate the results, SMART PLS was used. Results show that multichannel marketing have a higher positive relationship with brand trust when compared with each channel individually. However, a multichannel approach does not reduce the impact of privacy concerns. Regarding the relationship between privacy concerns and brand trust, they have a negative relationship. Thus, retailers should focus in integrating these two channels, focusing on the relation between the channels and how privacy concerns can be reduced to build a relationship of trust with the consumer

The role of information for the customer journey in mobile food ordering apps

Rita, P., Eiriz, V., & Conde, B. (2022). The role of information for the customer journey in mobile food ordering apps. Journal Of Services Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-11-2021-0407Purpose This study aims to determine how to influence the customer journey of mobile food ordering applications (MFOAs) users. It researches how available information could influence customers’ intention to use MFOAs platforms in the prepurchase stage and explores the potential of personalized information to improve customer satisfaction with these services in the postpurchase stage. Design/methodology/approach This research followed a mixed design, combining qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (online survey) research and using both content analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings Two types of available information (firm-generated information and online customer reviews) had a positive influence on the behavioral intention to use MFOAs. Additionally, findings showed that different web personalization strategies, namely, content personalization, functional personalization and system-driven personalization, were useful tools to create customer satisfaction with this type of platform. Research limitations/implications The study discusses limitations regarding the sample and sampling process, indicator variables and measures. Practical implications The present research provides actionable insights for online food delivery providers. Originality/value This study addresses a research gap in the literature and provides a novel and richer understanding of customer behavior toward mobile food delivery platforms. Also, it adds to the personalization research by identifying and testing a range of web personalization strategies. Keywordsauthorsversionepub_ahead_of_prin