Spotting The Elusive Prospect Customer: Exploratory Study Of A Web-Powered Customer Relationship Management Framework

Research on how Web-Mining (WM) optimizes marketing, is sparse. Especially absent, is research on WM usefulness for Customer Relationship Management (CRM). The purpose of this research, is to propose a Web Mining-enabled knowledge acquisition framework for analytical CRM. An exploratory study consisting of eleven in-depth interviews with marketing scholars and practitioners revealed that, WM methods and techniques - currently available to practitioners - are well-suited for identifying the profile of web prospects according to their browsing behaviour and to classify them into homogeneous groups. Besides, the nascent technologies regarding opinion mining, sentiment analysis or natural language parsing, and which underlie WM, seem sufficient to acquire knowledge pertaining to attitudinal and other more psychometrically-based characteristics about web prospects. Such tools enable to better understand the so-often termed elusive prospects, by crafting fine-grained online marketing strategies to acquire those would-be customers. The authors discuss the managerial implications that derive from these findings

Review of a proposed methodology for bibliometric and visualization analyses for organizations: application to the collaboration economy

This paper presents the bibliometric and visualization method applied to a dataset of 729 documents published in the collaborative economy research field. Four steps are described in details: (1) the delimitation of the field of study; (2) the selection of databases, keywords, and search criteria; (3) the extraction, cleaning, and formatting; and finally (4) the co-citation analysis and visualization. The method validation section shows the results obtained by applying our methodological procedure to an author network analysis as well as a source title network analysis. This study is unique which presents a co-citation analysis coupled with a network visualization applied to the rapidly growing research area of the collaborative economy as a whole and not only of the collaborative tourism and hospitality research, as has been previously. The originality of this method lies firstly in the fact that the data were extracted from two databases (Scopus and Web of Science) instead of one as is commonly done in analytic studies. Secondly, VOSviewer was our main analytical tool performing the co-citation analysis and the network visualizations

Benefits of the application of web-mining methods and techniques for the field of analytical customer relationship management of the marketing function in a knowledge management perspective

Le Web Mining (WM) reste une technologie relativement méconnue. Toutefois, si elle est utilisée adéquatement, elle s'avère être d'une grande utilité pour l'identification des profils et des comportements des clients prospects et existants, dans un contexte internet. Les avancées techniques du WM améliorent grandement le volet analytique de la Gestion de la Relation Client (GRC). Cette étude suit une approche exploratoire afin de déterminer si le WM atteint, à lui seul, tous les objectifs fondamentaux de la GRC, ou le cas échéant, devrait être utilisé de manière conjointe avec la recherche marketing traditionnelle et les méthodes classiques de la GRC analytique (GRCa) pour optimiser la GRC, et de fait le marketing, dans un contexte internet. La connaissance obtenue par le WM peut ensuite être administrée au sein de l'organisation dans un cadre de Gestion de la Connaissance (GC), afin d'optimiser les relations avec les clients nouveaux et/ou existants, améliorer leur expérience client et ultimement, leur fournir de la meilleure valeur. Dans un cadre de recherche exploratoire, des entrevues semi-structurés et en profondeur furent menées afin d'obtenir le point de vue de plusieurs experts en (web) data rnining. L'étude révéla que le WM est bien approprié pour segmenter les clients prospects et existants, pour comprendre les comportements transactionnels en ligne des clients existants et prospects, ainsi que pour déterminer le statut de loyauté (ou de défection) des clients existants. Il constitue, à ce titre, un outil d'une redoutable efficacité prédictive par le biais de la classification et de l'estimation, mais aussi descriptive par le biais de la segmentation et de l'association. En revanche, le WM est moins performant dans la compréhension des dimensions sous-jacentes, moins évidentes du comportement client. L'utilisation du WM est moins appropriée pour remplir des objectifs liés à la description de la manière dont les clients existants ou prospects développent loyauté, satisfaction, défection ou attachement envers une enseigne sur internet. Cet exercice est d'autant plus difficile que la communication multicanale dans laquelle évoluent les consommateurs a une forte influence sur les relations qu'ils développent avec une marque. Ainsi le comportement en ligne ne serait qu'une transposition ou tout du moins une extension du comportement du consommateur lorsqu'il n'est pas en ligne. Le WM est également un outil relativement incomplet pour identifier le développement de la défection vers et depuis les concurrents ainsi que le développement de la loyauté envers ces derniers. Le WM nécessite toujours d'être complété par la recherche marketing traditionnelle afin d'atteindre ces objectives plus difficiles mais essentiels de la GRCa. Finalement, les conclusions de cette recherche sont principalement dirigées à l'encontre des firmes et des gestionnaires plus que du côté des clients-internautes, car ces premiers plus que ces derniers possèdent les ressources et les processus pour mettre en œuvre les projets de recherche en WM décrits.\ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Web mining, Gestion de la connaissance, Gestion de la relation client, Données internet, Comportement du consommateur, Forage de données, Connaissance du consommateu

Exploring pro-environmental behaviors of consumers: An analysis of contextual factors, attitude, and behaviors

By including the context within which consumers' pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors are formed, this research provides a comprehensive delineation of the process that leads from context to behavior. This is the first study to examine context factors as subjective perceptions made by consumers about aspects of their own situation, specifically the extent to which they perceive having more or less time, money, and power available. In contrast to previous research considering one type of behavior (such as recycling), this study recognizes pro-environmental behavior as a heterogeneous, multi-dimensional construct, and includes both public and private sphere behaviors. Pro-environmental business managers and policy-makers may not be in a position to impact objective contextual factors that consumers face, however, they may influence perceptions and attitudes. This study identifies specifically which variables may be of more interest to modulate, so as to increase pro-environmental behavior

Cascades: What is it and how did Ii reach sustainability in a highly competitive sector?

Case Problem How to succeed in reconciling profitability with environmental and social sustainability? Case synopsis In an opinion article published in Les Affaires, a Quebecer newspaper, Professor Robert Dutton (HEC Montreal) underscored quite rightfully that ethics is useful when it disturbs. Reproaching to ethics, governance and responsibility rules “to bother” is to corroborate their very raison d’être. Some companies adopted a different stance though with regard to responsibility. Instead of considering it as a burden, they integrated its principles as a key distinctive business feature, which ultimately resulted in a competitive advantage. The case presents a company which managed to achieve just that. It portrays the family-owned “Cascades” company in Quebec, Canada. The company started in the 1960s in the fields of manufacturing, processing and marketing of packaging products and tissue paper, mainly composed of recycled fibers to become a world-class giant through various mergers, acquisitions and business expansion in the 2010s. What is remarkable about this company is that this successful expansion did not change its core values and principles, even in the most difficult times. In fact, Cascades was able to remain truthful to its founding principles, and it might be precisely that form of integrity which propelled the company to the summit. It appears that Cascades did not succeed despite sustainable development practices but rather because of them. The case is therefore articulated around the four key success factors of (1) culture and values, (2) stakeholder management, (3) reuse philosophy and (4) resource efficiency, which have contributed to Cascades’ success in reconciling profitability with environmental and social sustainability, hence sustainable development

Consumer intentions to use collaborative economy platforms: A meta‐analysis

Collaborative economy platforms (CEP) have been investigated from various disciplines, theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. Subsequently, numerous models emerged to explain the cognitive process underlying intentions to use CEP. Yet, their findings are fragmented and diverse, impeding thereby theory development and management practice. This article addresses this deficiency by a meta-analysis of psychosocial determinants of collaborative economy platforms (CEP) use intentions. Based on information from a total of 27 independent samples, we find support for the relation between psychosocial determinants and CEP use intentions, as well as willingness to pay a premium price for CEP. The findings show that (1) emotional and flexibility utility exert the strongest influence on use intentions; (2) functional and social utility exert more influence on willingness to pay a premium price; (3) CEP are primarily used for enjoyment and practical purposes; and (4) hedonism does not strongly lead to an increased willingness to pay

“Better start”: promoting breastfeeding through demarketing

This paper explores how demarketing strategies impact women’s breastfeeding attitudes, intentions, and behaviors under the moderation of time pressure and breastfeeding knowledge. Methods A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey among 369 respondents is used to test the proposed hypotheses. The study's population includes all breastfeeding women in Palestine. Snowball and convenience sampling were used to choose study participants through personal connections and social media. Every respondent was encouraged to share the survey with their social media contacts. Results The data results confirm the positive effects of promotion, place, price, and product demarketing, respectively, on women’s attitudes, intentions, and behavior toward breastfeeding. These effects were reinforced by reduction in time pressure and breastfeeding knowledge. Furthermore, demarketing effects are stronger for younger, more educated, unemployed, and lower-income women. Conclusion The study is a primer on promoting breastfeeding instead of formula by means of demarketing strategies

Can shared micromobility programs reduce greenhouse gas emissions: Evidence from urban transportation big data

Shared micromobillity has been extensively developed globally in the past few decades, but its impact on the environment remains unclear. This study quantitatively estimates the effects of global shared micromobillity programs on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using a life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective. Specifically, it takes major countries and cities around the world as examples to empirically analyze the impact of station-based bike-sharing (SBBS), free-floating bike-sharing (FFBS), free-floating e-bike sharing (FFEBS), and free-floating e-scooter sharing (FFESS) programs on the GHG emissions of urban transportation. The results show that, with the exception of SBBS, the other shared micromobillity programs have not achieved desirable GHG emissions reduction benefits. Contrarily to subjective expectations, although the rapid progress of technology in recent years has promoted the vigorous development of shared micromobility, it has brought negative impacts on the GHG emissions rather than the positive benefits claimed by related promoters and operators. The overcommercialization and low utilization rate makes shared micromobility more likely to be an environmentally-unfriendly mode of transportation. In addition, the regional differences in mode choice, operational efficiency, fleet scale, and market potential of shared micromobility and the corresponding impacts on GHG emissions vary greatly. Therefore, authorities should formulate appropriate shared micromobility plans based on the current conditions and goals of the region. This empirical study helps to better understand the environmental impact of the global shared micromobility program and offers valuable references for improving urban sustainability

Role of smart technologies for implementing industry 4.0 environment in product lifetime extension towards circular economy: A qualitative research

Since sustainability has grown in prominence over the past two decades, the impetus for improving the lifetime of durable and semi-durable manufactured goods has never been stronger. In order to decrease the level of natural resources extraction, as well as the increasing amounts of residuals and solid waste, product lifetime extension (PLE) strategies, such as improved design, maintenance, redistribution, access, and recovery, show great potential, especially if paired with smart technologies in the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) environment. Much research has investigated the contribution of I4.0 technologies to sustainability and the circular economy. Yet, only a few studies have focused on exploring the contribution of smart technologies to the specific area of PLE. This paper advances knowledge regarding the impact of four specific types of smart technologies on PLE strategies: Additive Manufacturing, the Internet of Things, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence. This study consists of exploratory qualitative research to explore the mechanism underlying the implementation of these I4.0 technologies in PLE for a circular economy. Qualitative data is collected through twenty semi-directed, in-depth interviews with business leaders and executives involved in product development and research and development (R&D) in Quebec, Canada. An analytical approach parented to grounded theory and consisting of open, axial, and selective coding led to identifying four emerging themes explaining how focal smart technologies contribute to PLE. These include (1) empowerment and acceleration of R&D (improvement of prototypes, prototype validation), (2) smarter production (tooling assistance, manufacturing assistance), (3) automation of managerial and operational processes (automation of management, automation of production), and (4) help with decision-making (anticipation, identification, and solving of problems). These findings have broad relevance for sustainability theory and practice by highlighting the specific mechanisms through which technology contributes to product sustainability