Topic modeling in marketing: recent advances and research opportunities

Using a probabilistic approach for exploring latent patterns in high-dimensional co-occurrence data, topic models offer researchers a flexible and open framework for soft-clustering large data sets. In recent years, there has been a growing interest among marketing scholars and practitioners to adopt topic models in various marketing application domains. However, to this date, there is no comprehensive overview of this rapidly evolving field. By analyzing a set of 61 published papers along with conceptual contributions, we systematically review this highly heterogeneous area of research. In doing so, we characterize extant contributions employing topic models in marketing along the dimensions data structures and retrieval of input data, implementation and extensions of basic topic models, and model performance evaluation. Our findings confirm that there is considerable progress done in various marketing sub-areas. However, there is still scope for promising future research, in particular with respect to integrating multiple, dynamic data sources, including time-varying covariates and the combination of exploratory topic models with powerful predictive marketing models

Implications of probabilistic data modeling for rule mining

Mining association rules is an important technique for discovering meaningful patterns in transaction databases. In the current literature, the properties of algorithms to mine associations are discussed in great detail. In this paper we investigate properties of transaction data sets from a probabilistic point of view. We present a simple probabilistic framework for transaction data and its implementation using the R statistical computing environment. The framework can be used to simulate transaction data when no associations are present. We use such data to explore the ability to filter noise of confidence and lift, two popular interest measures used for rule mining. Based on the framework we develop the measure hyperlift and we compare this new measure to lift using simulated data and a real-world grocery database.Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematic

A Combined Approach for Segment-Specific Analysis of Market Basket Data

There are two main research traditions for analyzing market basket data that exist more or less independently from each other, namely exploratory and explanatory model types. Exploratory approaches are restricted to the task of discovering cross-category interrelationships and provide marketing managers with only very limited recommendations regarding decision making. The latter type of models mainly focus on estimating the effects of category-level marketing mix variables on purchase incidences assuming cross-category dependencies. We propose a procedure that combines these two modeling approaches in a novel two-stage procedure for analyzing cross-category effects based on shopping basket data: In a data compression step we first derive a set of market basketprototypes and generate segments of households with internally more distinctive(complementary) cross-category interdependencies. Utilizing the information oncategories that are most responsible for prototype construction, segment-specificmultivariate logistic models are estimated in a second step. Based on the data-driven way of basket construction, we can show significant differences in cross-effects and related price elasticities both across segments and compared to the global (segment-unspecific) model

Store Format Choice and Shopping Trip Types

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to identify store format attributes that impact on store format choice when consumers conduct fill-in or major trips to buy groceries. By doing so, we take into consideration that consumers patronise multiple (store-based) formats depending on the shopping situation operationalised by the type of shopping trip. Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopts the conceptual framework of random utility theory via application of a multinomial logit modelling framework. The analysis is based on a survey of 408 consumers representing households in a clearly defined central European retail area. Findings: The results reveal a considerable moderating effect of the shopping situation on the relationship between perceived store format attributes and store format choice. Consumers’ utilities are significantly higher for discount stores and hypermarkets when conducting major trips. To the contrary, supermarkets are preferred for fill-in trips in the focused retail market. Merchandise-related attributes of store formats have a higher impact on the utility formation regarding major-trips, whereas service- and convenience-related attributes do so regarding fill-in trips. Research limitations: The findings can only be generalised to retail markets having similar characteristics like the one under study. It is highly concentrated, contains considerable share of small size retail stores, it is urban and has clear cut boundaries due to its geographical location. Originality/value: This paper considers the fact that consumers patronise multiple store formats and investigates the moderating effect of the shopping situation – operationalised by different types of shopping trips – on store format choice

Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopper Types in Evolved and Created Retail Agglomerations

This paper focuses on the impact of hedonic and utilitarian values of shopping on retail agglomeration patronage issues, in particular on shopping behaviour and the perception of retail agglomerations. Our empirical study is based on a discussion of agglomerations’ potential to attract utilitarian and hedonic shopper types. A sample of 2,139 customers were interviewed in a peripheral shopping mall as well as on an inner city shopping street and confronted with a multi-item scale operationalising shopping values as developed by Babin et al. (1994). Using a standard fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm we identified four distinct shopper types. The results show that hedonists are represented by a higher number of females, earn lower individual incomes and are less educated compared to utilitarians. Interestingly, a higher share of hedonists visited the shopping mall. Overall, they make more shopping trips to agglomerations, stay there longer, visit more stores and – depending on the agglomeration format – spend less than or the same amount as utilitarians. Finally, we see that those customers who are attracted by agglomerations because of atmospheric and price stimuli are typical hedonists

WIE WIRKT MOBILE WERBUNG? EMIRISCHE BEFUNDE AUS EINER SMS-WERBEKAMPAGNE

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht Einflussgrößen auf die Akzeptanz und Einstellung von Kunden gegenüber Werbemaßnahmen unter Verwendung mobiler Kommunikationstechnologien. Im Gegensatz zu den bislang vorgestellten, meist kontextunabhängigen Ansätzen wird hier ein Untersuchungsdesgin vorgestellt, welches die Wirkungsmechanismen einer konkreten SMSbasierten Promotions-Aktion auf psychologische Werbezielgrößen näher beleuchtet. Im Rahmen eines kontrollierten Feldexperiments wird das Modell einer empirischen Evaluation unterzogen. Die Ergebnisse belegen die hohe Bedeutung einer zielgruppenadäquaten Auswahl von Produkten für eine Bewerbung durch Direktmarketing-Aktionen. Darüber hinaus zeigt sich einmal mehr, dass das Einverständnis bzw. die Freiwilligkeit der Rezipienten zum Bezug mobiler Werbebotschaften eine wichtige Voraussetzung für die Akzeptanz dieses aufkommenden Werbemediums darstellt

The carrot and the stick in online reviews: determinants of un-/helpfulness voting choices

With increasing volumes of customer reviews, ‘helpfulness’ features have been established by many online platforms as decision-aids for consumers to cope with potential information overload. In this study, we offer a diferentiated perspective on the drivers of review helpfulness. Using a hurdle regression setup for both helpfulness and unhelpfulness voting behavior, we aim to disentangle the differential effects of what drives reviews to receive any votes, how many votes they receive and whether these effects differ for helpful against unhelpful review voting behavior. As potential driving factors we include reviews’ star rating deviations from the average rating (as a proxy for confrmation bias), the level of controversy among reviews and review sentiment (consistency of review content), as well as pricing information in our analysis. Albeit with opposite effect signs, we find that revealed review un-/helpfulness is consistently guided by the tonality (i.e., the sentiment of review texts) and that reviewers tend to be less critical for lower priced products. However, we find only partial support for a confirmation bias with differential effects for the level of controversy on helpfulness versus unhelpfulness review votings. We conclude that the effects of voting disagreement are more complex than previous literature suggests and discuss implications for research and management practice

Production of IFN-β during Listeria monocytogenes Infection Is Restricted to Monocyte/Macrophage Lineage

The family of type I interferons (IFN), which consists of several IFN-α and one IFN-β, are produced not only after stimulation by viruses, but also after infection with non-viral pathogens. In the course of bacterial infections, these cytokines could be beneficial or detrimental. IFN-β is the primary member of type I IFN that initiates a cascade of IFN-α production. Here we addressed the question which cells are responsible for IFN-β expression after infection with the intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes by using a genetic approach. By means of newly established reporter mice, maximum of IFN-β expression was observed at 24 hours post infection in spleen and, surprisingly, 48 hours post infection in colonized cervical and inguinal lymph nodes. Colonization of lymph nodes was independent of the type I IFN signaling, as well as bacterial dose and strain. Using cell specific reporter function and conditional deletions we could define cells expressing LysM as the major IFN-β producers, with cells formerly defined as Tip-DCs being the highest. Neutrophilic granulocytes, dendritic cells and plasmacytoid dendritic cells did not significantly contribute to type I IFN production

Type I interferon: friend or foe?

Although the role of type I interferon (IFN) in the protection against viral infections has been known and studied for decades, its role in other immunologically relevant scenarios, including bacterial infections, shock, autoimmunity, and cancer, is less well defined and potentially much more complicated

NOD2, RIP2 and IRF5 Play a Critical Role in the Type I Interferon Response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis

While the recognition of microbial infection often occurs at the cell surface via Toll-like receptors, the cytosol of the cell is also under surveillance for microbial products that breach the cell membrane. An important outcome of cytosolic recognition is the induction of IFNα and IFNβ, which are critical mediators of immunity against both bacteria and viruses. Like many intracellular pathogens, a significant fraction of the transcriptional response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection depends on these type I interferons, but the recognition pathways responsible remain elusive. In this work, we demonstrate that intraphagosomal M. tuberculosis stimulates the cytosolic Nod2 pathway that responds to bacterial peptidoglycan, and this event requires membrane damage that is actively inflicted by the bacterium. Unexpectedly, this recognition triggers the expression of type I interferons in a Tbk1- and Irf5-dependent manner. This response is only partially impaired by the loss of Irf3 and therefore, differs fundamentally from those stimulated by bacterial DNA, which depend entirely on this transcription factor. This difference appears to result from the unusual peptidoglycan produced by mycobacteria, which we show is a uniquely potent agonist of the Nod2/Rip2/Irf5 pathway. Thus, the Nod2 system is specialized to recognize bacteria that actively perturb host membranes and is remarkably sensitive to mycobacteria, perhaps reflecting the strong evolutionary pressure exerted by these pathogens on the mammalian immune system