Robust Learning of Consumer Preferences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifan Feng ◽  
René Caldentey ◽  
Christopher Thomas Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Consumer Preferences ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
Robust Learning ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Data Driven Approach ◽  
Practical Performance

When companies develop new products, there are often competing designs from which to choose to take to market. How to decide? Traditional methods, such as focus groups, do not scale to the modern marketplace in which tastes evolve rapidly. In “Robust Learning of Consumer Preferences,” Feng, Caldentey, and Ryan develop a data-driven approach to deciding which design to produce by displaying a sequence of subsets of possible designs to potential customers. Their framework finds solutions that are robust to any model of consumer choice within a broad family that includes common choice models studied in the literature as special cases. Previous research focuses on algorithms whose performances are tied to a given choice model. Their algorithm is shown to be asymptotically optimal in a worst-case sense. The promising practical performance of the algorithm is demonstrated through a comprehensive numerical study using real data.

A Framework for Choice Modeling in Usage Context-Based Design

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin He ◽  
Christopher Hoyle ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Jiliang Wang ◽  
Bernard Yannou
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Consumer Preferences ◽  
Choice Modeling ◽  
Product Performance ◽  
Choice Data ◽  
Modeling Framework ◽  
Usage Context

Usage Context-Based Design (UCBD) is an area of growing interest within the design community. A framework and a step-by-step procedure for implementing consumer choice modeling in UCBD are presented in this work. To implement the proposed approach, methods for common usage identification, data collection, linking performance with usage context, and choice model estimation are developed. For data collection, a method of try-it-out choice experiments is presented. This method is necessary to account for the different choices respondents make conditional on the given usage context, which allows us to examine the influence of product design, customer profile, usage context attributes, and their interactions, on the choice process. Methods of data analysis are used to understand the collected choice data, as well as to understand clusters of similar customers and similar usage contexts. The choice modeling framework, which considers the influence of usage context on both the product performance, choice set and the consumer preferences, is presented as the key element of a quantitative usage context-based design process. In this framework, product performance is modeled as a function of both the product design and the usage context. Additionally, usage context enters into an individual customer’s utility function directly to capture its influence on product preferences. The entire process is illustrated with a case study of the design of a jigsaw.

scholarly journals Consumer Choice Modelling in Sharing Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1153-1161
Author(s):  
A.O. Gostilovich
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Consumer Behaviour ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Consumer Preferences ◽  
Sharing Economy ◽  
Target Market ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Choice Modelling ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
New Business

Development of sharing economy creates new challenges and opens unprecedented business opportunities. In this economic environment, industrial enterprises can expand their direct selling strategies with the new business model “product as a service”. This option is the result of a shift in consumer preferences among clients of industrial enterprises. The development of the consumer choice model applied to sharing economy is a topical agenda, perhaps now more than ever. Such a model, if available, would help predict multiple scenarios of consumer behaviour and prepare the manufacturing companies for better interaction with their target market. This article makes an attempt to offer a consumer choice model in sharing economy, based on 4 types of possible consumer behaviour. The results of the article serve as a foundation of multi-agent modelling and quantitative assessment of abstract situations in the business-to-consumer market.

scholarly journals A Conceptual Discourse on Consumer’s Preference of Brandy

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-307
Author(s):  
Raj Maharjan
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Reasoned Action ◽  
Action Theory ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Consumer Preferences ◽  
Consumer Preference ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
Hedonic Price

Background: Liquor industry is growing to become a global giant by empowering its competitiveness. Nowadays, alcohol has been accepted and welcomed as a normal part of everyday life with innovatively embedded alcohol development and promotion. Alcohol products consist of a range of offerings including Gin, wine, vodka and Scotch, among which brandy has been gaining higher importance. Objectives: This paper explores the consumers’ preferences for brandy, their knowledge on brandy and also the factors determining the consumer choice on consumption of brandy.This study aims to contribute to the brandy consumer behavior-responsive managerial implications, especially in hospitality industry by identifying the attributes that are perceived important for the marketing of brandy to a large segment of dynamic market. Methods: The academic discourse on this paper includes exploration of multiple dimensions related to the study of consumer behavior. Theories concerning consumer preferences, with specific focus on Reasoned Action Theory, Engel Kollat Blackwell Model, Hybrid Choice Model, Hedonic Price Model, Consumer Perception Factor Model and Conjoint Analysis are reviewed.The study on brandy, along with the differences from other alcoholic beverages, has also been included. Findings: Brandy represents a wide category and the bases of differences among types of brandy are studied along with the review of brandy products available worldwide. This study highlights brandy consumption practices in the world, benefits of brandy consumption and people’s perception towards brandy among other alcoholic beverages. Conclusions: Alcohol is the fastest growing industry and requires consumer preference for the promotions and penetration of the product into the market, and for developingthe product and improving it further.

An Empirical Study of Store Choice Model: An Endogenous Construct

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Prof. Amit Shrivastava ◽  
Prof. Sushil Kumar Pare ◽  
Prof (Dr) Saumya Singh
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Product Category ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Consumer Decision Making ◽  
Store Choice ◽  
Store Attributes ◽  
Patronage Intention

Inadequate is the empirical research on store choice model in view of retail store attributes with endogenous construct of store patronage intention of consumer. Conventional wisdom and social science research-based insights for underpinning the design of store environment established elements such as music, scent, crowding and physical attractiveness of the store. Earlier empirical findings lack on key anterior, which include consumers’ time and effort as well as the psychological costs such as convenient, economical, risk mitigated shopping experience. The premise on which overall effects in our model rests, is that store attributes influence consumers' cognitive process and develop perceptual framework of store choice criteria — namely, convenience, reputation of outlet, branded merchandise (mediated through perceived quality). This research presents a formal test of the linear regression equation model in the context of store choice behaviour, involving one product category. The present paper explores these attributes and their affect on consumer from different socio-economic classes, willingness to purchase and to patronize if these factors are modified. Questioning the earlier conclusions that all attributes aforementioned are equally important in consumer decision making, the current results indicate that consumers place differential significance on each attribute, and the level of significance placed on each attribute varies with different socio economic class. These findings are significantly important to the retail industry as they identify the critical attributes responsible for building consumer choice and patronage among different socio economy classes. This model also paves way for another premise of empirical research, that shoppers might develop category-wise store choice or patronage behaviour model.

scholarly journals Robust estimation for multivariate wrapped models

METRON ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Saraceno ◽  
Claudio Agostinelli ◽  
Luca Greco
Keyword(s):  
Robust Estimation ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Likelihood Method ◽  
Weighted Likelihood ◽  
Finite Sample ◽  
Pearson Residuals ◽  
Data Points ◽  
Wrapped Distributions ◽  
Standard Techniques

AbstractA weighted likelihood technique for robust estimation of multivariate Wrapped distributions of data points scattered on a $$p-$$ p - dimensional torus is proposed. The occurrence of outliers in the sample at hand can badly compromise inference for standard techniques such as maximum likelihood method. Therefore, there is the need to handle such model inadequacies in the fitting process by a robust technique and an effective downweighting of observations not following the assumed model. Furthermore, the employ of a robust method could help in situations of hidden and unexpected substructures in the data. Here, it is suggested to build a set of data-dependent weights based on the Pearson residuals and solve the corresponding weighted likelihood estimating equations. In particular, robust estimation is carried out by using a Classification EM algorithm whose M-step is enhanced by the computation of weights based on current parameters’ values. The finite sample behavior of the proposed method has been investigated by a Monte Carlo numerical study and real data examples.

scholarly journals Loss Aversion and Consumption Choice: Theory and Experimental Evidence

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heiko Karle ◽  
Georg Kirchsteiger ◽  
Martin Peitz
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Loss Aversion ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Rational Expectations ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Choice Model ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Price Uncertainty ◽  
Theoretical Predictions

We analyze a consumer-choice model with price uncertainty, loss aversion, and expectation-based reference points. The implications of this model are tested in an experiment in which participants have to make a consumption choice between two sandwiches. Participants differ in their reported taste for the two sandwiches and in their degree of loss aversion, which we measure separately. We find that more-loss-averse participants are more likely to opt for the cheaper sandwich, in line with theoretical predictions. The estimates in the model with rational expectations are slightly more significant than those with naïve expectations. (JEL D11, D12, D84, M31)

scholarly journals Weighted Mask R-CNN for Improving Adjacent Boundary Segmentation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
SungMin Suh ◽  
Yongeun Park ◽  
KyoungMin Ko ◽  
SeongMin Yang ◽  
Jaehyeong Ahn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Membrane ◽  
Edge Detection ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Simulated Data ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Single Image ◽  
Heterogeneous Objects ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Instance Segmentation

In the recent era of AI, instance segmentation has significantly advanced boundary and object detection especially in diverse fields (e.g., biological and environmental research). Despite its progress, edge detection amid adjacent objects (e.g., organism cells) still remains intractable. This is because homogeneous and heterogeneous objects are prone to being mingled in a single image. To cope with this challenge, we propose the weighted Mask R-CNN designed to effectively separate overlapped objects in virtue of extra weights to adjacent boundaries. For numerical study, a range of experiments are performed with applications to simulated data and real data (e.g., Microcystis, one of the most common algae genera and cell membrane images). It is noticeable that the weighted Mask R-CNN outperforms the standard Mask R-CNN, given that the analytic experiments show on average 92.5% of precision and 96.4% of recall in algae data and 94.5% of precision and 98.6% of recall in cell membrane data. Consequently, we found that a majority of sample boundaries in real and simulated data are precisely segmented in the midst of object mixtures.

Consumer Choice and Market Expansion: Modeling, Optimization, and Estimation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruxian Wang
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Expectation Maximization ◽  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Choice Behavior ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Market Size ◽  
Solution Approach ◽  
Pricing Decisions ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
Consumer Choice Behavior

The growth of market size is crucially important to firms, although researchers often assume that market size is constant in assortment and pricing management. I develop a model that incorporates the market expansion effects into discrete consumer choice models and investigate various operations problems. Market size, measured by the number of people who are interested in the products from the same category, is largely influenced by firms’ operations strategy, and it also affects assortment planning and pricing decisions. Failure to account for market expansion effects may lead to substantial losses in demand estimation and operations management. Based on real data, this paper uses an alternating-optimization expectation-maximization method that separates the estimation of consumer choice behavior and market expansion effects to calibrate the new model. The end-to-end solution approach on modeling, operations, and estimation is readily applicable in real business.

DKP equation with smooth barrier

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Langueur ◽  
M. Merad ◽  
A. Rassoul
Keyword(s):  
Hypergeometric Function ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Confluent Hypergeometric Function ◽  
Reflection Coefficients ◽  
Step Potential ◽  
Dkp Equation ◽  
Transmission And Reflection Coefficients ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Rectangular Barrier ◽  
Transmission And Reflection

In this paper, we study the Duffin–Kemmer–Petiau (DKP) equation in the presence of a smooth barrier in dimensions space–time (1+1) dimensions. The eigenfunctions are determined in terms of the confluent hypergeometric function [Formula: see text]. The transmission and reflection coefficients are calculated, special cases as a rectangular barrier and step potential are analyzed. A numerical study is presented for the transmission and reflection coefficients graphs for some values of the parameters [Formula: see text] are plotted.

Implementation of DTM as a numerical study for the Casson fluid flow past an exponentially variable stretching sheet with thermal radiation

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150111
Author(s):  
Khadijah M. Abualnaja
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Flow ◽  
Thermal Radiation ◽  
Numerical Method ◽  
Stretching Sheet ◽  
Numerical Solutions ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Transformation Method ◽  
Casson Fluid ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Special Cases

This paper introduces a theoretical and numerical study for the problem of Casson fluid flow and heat transfer over an exponentially variable stretching sheet. Our contribution in this work can be observed in the presence of thermal radiation and the assumption of dependence of the fluid thermal conductivity on the heat. This physical problem is governed by a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which is solved numerically by using the differential transformation method (DTM). This numerical method enables us to plot figures of the velocity and temperature distribution through the boundary layer region for different physical parameters. Apart from numerical solutions with the DTM, solutions to our proposed problem are also connected with studying the skin-friction coefficient. Estimates for the local Nusselt number are studied as well. The comparison of our numerical method with previously published results on similar special cases shows excellent agreement.

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