A purchase decision support model considering consumer personalization about aspirations and risk attitudes

Ranking alternative products to help consumers make better purchase choices is a valuable research topic. Most previous decision support models cannot be well applied to heterogeneous consumers. This paper focuses on establishing a personalized interactive model to assist consumers make better buying decisions with less effort. For the alternative products provided by consumers, we collect online reviews and parameter configurations of alternative products and then obtain the fusing evaluative information. As consumers are dominated by bounded rationality, they only provide partially key attribute weights, based on which, we construct an optimizing model to obtain the optimal attribute weights of customers for products. Then, a satisfaction function is proposed by uniting aspiration levels and risk attitudes of consumers and a compensatory decision rules is established to rank and recommend the brands to consumers. Finally, practicability of this study is illustrated with a real car purchase case. Through the case study, it can be seen that the proposed decision support model generates a personalized list of alternatives based on consumer's own utility function about risk attitudes, aspiration levels, and preferences for product attributes, which further confirms that the proposed model can capture the personalized needs of consumers. Theoretical and managerial implications of this model as well as advantages are further illustrated.     

Comparing email and SNS users: Investigating e-servicescape,customer reviews,trust, loyalty and E-WOM

For better or worse, satisfied or dissatisfied customers function as trusted branding faces for organizations as they transmit potentially viral messages through E-WOM. These E-WOM messages can prove marketers' best friends or worst enemies, depending on their tenor. With data from actual customers of an e-tailer, this research enriches our understanding of how e-servicescape is linked to E-WOM. E-servicescape captures the online environmental factors of marketers’ websites. Two forms of E-WOM are examined; i.e., emails and social network postings. Customer reviews were investigated as a prospective sub-dimension of e-servicescape. Findings suggest that customer reviews play an integral role in the e-servicescape construct, that e-servicescape positively impacts trust and that trust positively influences E-WOM and customer loyalty. Two groups of customers were compared, and results indicated differences between email and SNS users. Theoretical and managerial insights related to E-WOM and electronic commerce shopping behavior were generated.     

Text mining approach to explore dimensions of airline customer satisfaction using online customer reviews

The airline industry operates in a highly competitive market, in which achieving and maintaining a high level of passenger satisfaction is seen as a key competitive advantage. This study presents a novel framework for measuring customer satisfaction in the airline industry. Using text mining methods we explore Online Customer Reviews (OCRs) to provide guidelines for airlines companies to improve in competitiveness. We analyze a database of more than 55,000 OCRs, covering over 400 airlines and passengers from 170 countries. Using a Latent Dirichlet Allocation model we identified 27 dimensions of satisfaction described by 882 adjectives. Dimensions and adjectives were used to predict airline recommendation by customers, resulting in an accuracy of 79.95%. The most relevant dimensions for airlines' recommendation prediction were calculated. OCRs were stratified according to several variables. Of those, type of passenger impacted the least on the number of dimensions of customer satisfaction, while type of cabin flown impacted the most. Observing results in different publication years we showed airline customer trends through time. Our method showed sensitiveness to identify variations in dimensions distribution according to different passenger characteristics and preferences. Practical implications are that airline service providers aiming at maximizing customer satisfaction should focus their efforts on (i) customer service to first class passengers, (ii) comfort to premium economy passengers, and (iii) checking luggage and waiting time to economy class travelers. Regression analysis revealed cabin staff, onboard service and value for money as top three dimensions of satisfaction to predict the recommendation of airlines. Designing services that excel in those dimensions is likely to improve the company's performance with customers.     

Listening to the voice of the guest: A framework to improve decision-making processes with text data

The amount of texts available on the web is growing continuously and making sense of this unstructured data efficiently and effectively, therefore, poses a demanding challenge for organizations. Although computer science community has developed many techniques, there is ample room for improvement on organizational utilization of such text data, especially when referring to decision-making support. In this article, we propose and validate a framework towards an effective use of text data inside hotel industry, bringing tourism sector to this discussion. We combined three text mining techniques for text classification, sentiment analysis and topic modeling in a novelty way to allows managers to analyze guests’ comments and compares competitors in hospitality industry based on SERVQUAL. Our objective is to present an automatized process involving text data collection and analysis, improving decision-making process.     

2010上海世博会参观客流引导系统

对世博会园区规划和人员流动问题进行了分析,确定了所要设计系统的目标,利用信息、RFID、通讯和决策技术,设计了世博会参观客流引导系统,包括游客和决策支持,此系统的建立可以有效地缓解世博会接纳庞大客流的压力．同时为游客提供优质的服务。     

中国光伏产业投融资研究进展

从投融资视角,对我国光伏产业投融资问题及其背后的原因进行总结,发现中国光伏产业投融资主要存在产业链部分环节融资富余或缺乏、投融资工具单一且市场集中、项目融资模式创新难以进入光伏领域等问题。在此基础上,归纳出解决中国光伏产业投融资问题在政策优化和融资创新两个方面的对策。最后,展望了中国光伏产业投融资领域的研究方向,需要从全产业链角度,研究光伏产业融资创新产品绩效、产业链投融资政策优化和协同。     

Investigating cross-national heterogeneity in the adoption of online hotel reviews

Increasing reliance of potential guests on online hotel reviews has given rise to trepidation among some hospitality managers recently, thus necessitating a better understanding of its adoption. Literature on multicultural studies have suggested that behavioral models do not universally hold across cultures. In view of the limited generalizability and applicability of extant cross-cultural studies to this context, this study generates cross-national insights into the antecedents of travelers’ intention to use online hotel reviews to better understand the use of consumer-generated reviews across cultures. Generally, the predictive power of the model derived from the Motivation Theory and TAM holds true for both the United States and Singapore. Nonetheless, tests for structural invariance reveals some noteworthy differences between the two countries. The results highlight the complex cognitive mechanisms determining the acceptance of online hotel reviews in each country as moderated by national culture orientations. Findings hold implications for practitioners and researchers as they navigate through social media in different cultural contexts.     

The Influence of Appearance and the Number of People Viewed on Tourists’ Preferences for Seeing Other Tourists

This study examines tourists’ attitudes towards tourist-tourist encounters. The appearance and the number of observed tourists as well as the place of residence of the observing tourists were studied. The variables of tourist appearance and the number of people at the site were manipulated electronically in a set of rainforest photographic images. The data were collected through an on-site self-administered questionnaire. The results from 409 respondents suggested that there were different encounter preferences between Japanese and Western observers with respect to both appearance and the number of people encountered. Japanese have a preference for mixing with Westerners, at least in the rainforest setting studied. Westerners do not have marked appearance-related preferences. For the number of people in the setting, Westerners are inclined to favour few or no people while Japanese prefer some people and are tolerant of larger numbers. These findings, which contradict much of the existing North American recreation based work on people in contact, were examined from a number of theoretical perspectives, including in-group and out-group analyses, and dynamic encounter norms. Some potential management implications were outlined.     

Understanding visitor–resident relations in overtourism: developing resilience for sustainable tourism

While almost all travel destinations seek to increase tourists, less attention is paid to balancing the growth in tourists against consequent visitor–resident irritants, which is essential if the objective is to make tourism more sustainable. Overlooking the carrying capacity of a destination is a common mistake committed when formulating travel visa policies. Overtourism is a term recently used to contextualize this potential hazard to many popular tourist destinations worldwide. One notable case in point is the “multiple-entry permit” policy implemented in Hong Kong which is causing conflicts between mainland Chinese visitors and Hong Kong residents. To investigate the overtourism phenomenon in Hong Kong we develop a hysteresis model. We hypothesized that ceteris paribus, the implementation of a “multiple-entry permit” policy would lead to an overwhelming growth in day-trippers and cause a permanently negative cointegrating relationship with residents’ sentiment. We confirmed our hypothesis by using the bound tests of Autoregressive-Distributed Lag models. Our findings suggest that policymakers should note that the deterioration in visitor–resident relations from overtourism may exhibit a significant hysteresis effect that will persist far beyond the original stimulus. “Developing resilience in tourism” and “exploring sustainable degrowth” are discussed as potential strategies for long-term tourism growth.     

Visitor spending and economic impacts of heritage tourism: a case study of the Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area

Heritage is regarded as one of the most significant and fastest growing components of tourism. The development of heritage tourism as a generator of income besides the enhancement of community pride and identity has emerged as an objective of both heritage sites and tourism planning. The discretionary nature of expenditures in heritage tourist places makes it crucial to understand visitor spending pattern. This is key in demonstrating the economic contribution to the community for the tourism planners. This presentation is based on an intercept survey of travelers to the Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area (SSNHA), comprising 37 counties in Northeast Iowa. Visitor spending pattern is discussed among four categories of heritage sites in the SSNHA: farms, museums, parks and gardens, and businesses. IMPLAN Input–Output Model is utilized to generate the direct, indirect and induced economic impact in the area.