1,720,988 research outputs found
Think with me, or think for me? On the future role of artificial intelligence in marketing strategy formulation
No full textPurpose: This paper explores if and how Artificial Intelligence can contribute to marketing strategy formulation. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative research based on exploratory in-depth interviews with industry experts currently working with artificial intelligence tools. Findings: Key themes include: (1) Importance of AI in strategic marketing decision management; (2) Presence of AI in strategic decision management; (3) Role of AI in strategic decision management; (4) Importance of business culture for the use of AI; (5) Impact of AI on the business’ organizational model. A key consideration is a “creative-possibility perspective,” highlighting the future potential to use AI not only for rational but also for creative thinking purposes. Research limitations/implications: This work is focused only on strategy creation as a deliberate process. For this, AI can be used as an effective response to the external contingencies of high volumes of data and uncertain environmental conditions, as well as being an effective response to the external contingencies of limited managerial cognition. A key future consideration is a “creative-possibility perspective.” Practical implications: A practical extension of the Gartner Analytics Ascendancy Model (Maoz, 2013). Originality/value: This paper aims to contribute knowledge relating to the role of AI in marketing strategy formulation and explores the potential avenues for future use of AI in the strategic marketing process. This is explored through the lens of contingency theory, and additionally, findings are expressed using the Gartner analytics ascendancy model
Road Network Safety Screening of County Wide Road Network. The Case of the Province of Brescia (Northern Italy)
No full textAlthough EU roads are the safest in the world, the target of halving the road deaths by 2020 was not achieved. Road Infrastructure Safety Management procedures are key to improve road safety performances, and their implementation is required for primary road networks. Specifically, Road Network Screening enables to apply a wide-level analysis to identify the most critical segments of the network, and direct in-depth investigations more efficiently. Crash prediction models (CPMs) are extremely useful tools for quantitative road safety analysis, and road network screening can greatly benefit from their application. The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) is one of the main references worldwide, but the reported models are subjected to transferability issues due to their site-specific formulation. Most of previous studies on CPMs focused on HSM calibration models or investigated the effect of several factors over the crash frequency on specific road type. However, to our knowledge, Europewide few attempts were performed to develop a road network screening by mean of CPM. This paper covers these gaps by developing a specific CPMs to screen county-road network and identify most critical segment. The model was applied to the main road network of the Province of Brescia (Northern Italy). Few, but significant variables were identified in the model and maps were produced to rank the road network based on the crash frequency values. This model can serve as a relevant decision support tool for all bodies responsible in the definition of road safety interventions and related resources allocation, prior than crashes occur
Why not promote promotion for green consumption? The controversial role of Regulatory Focus
No full textPurpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the effects of regulatory focus (RF) orientation (promotion/prevention) on decisions to purchase green products. The two experimental studies conducted aimed to test whether individuals in a prevention (promotion) state were more (or less) inclined to buy green products.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the effect of RF on green and non-green consumption, the authors carried out two experimental studies (one considering a service
car sharing the other a physical product a laundry detergent). The studies are 2 (RF: prevention vs promotion) 2 (product type: green vs non-green) between factorial design involving 196 and 92 participants, respectively.
Findings
Promotion-focus has a powerful influence on green consumption. In both studies, individuals with a promotion focus seemed to be more inclined to buy green products as opposed to individuals in a prevention state.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitations of this study first relate to the results of the two experiments. Even though both studies showed that promotion-focused rather than prevention-focused individuals are more inclined to buy green products, the differences between the two orientations in green
condition are not statistically significant. As a result, the studies cannot determine whether to reject or accept the two main hypothesis.
Social implications
This paper provides some preliminary indications that could be useful to encourage consumers to adopt “green” styles of consumption. Focusing on an individual’s RF is a useful strategy to induce them to change their consumption choices abruptly. Relying more on a “promotion” rather than a “prevention” focus, individuals would be compelled to take immediate responsible behavior.
Originality/value
This paper aims to fill the gap on the role of RF in green consumption. Contrary to the accepted idea that a prevention state is more compatible with consumer ethics than promotion state, the studies showed the controversial role assumed by a prevention state in green consumption
Technical and Hedonistic Variables of Online Visual Merchandising: Do They Influence Apparel Website Popularity and Attractiveness?
Full text linkThis study looks for a correlation between visual hedonistic and technical variables and site success, simultaneously establishing whether there are any recorded evolutionary aspects of technical variables. A mixed method approach was adopted and the analysis was divided into the following phases: content analysis on technical and hedonistic characteristics; traffic analysis, analysis of the position of websites in relation to data traffic using a size reduction technique; cross-analysis of results obtained in the two previous phases to observe the cluster structure from a point of view of data traffic. The results state that there is no clear correlation between technical and hedonistic qualities of an e-commerce site in the apparel industry and the popularity and attractiveness of their site, and therefore, the authors cannot confirm the four proposed hypotheses
The influence of foreigners’ buzzing on TripAdvisor ranking of restaurants in Venice: implications for the sustainability of over-touristed heritage cities
Full text linkLocal and global coexist in any tourist destination, and the challenge of tourism sustainability is what remains in the balance between these two dimensions. Social and consumer-generated media are changing how local and global are coming together in the local system. These media’s effects are even more important in overtouristed places, where a significant imbalance between local and tourist development already exists. In this paper, the effects from foreigners’ reviews in crowd-based ranking systems in overtouristed cities are investigated. Based on a case study of TripAdvisor’s restaurant rankings in Venice, our findings suggest that foreigners’ reviews systematically rate tourist experiences’ quality higher than non-foreigners’ reviews, and that their attitude significantly affects the ranking of these experiences. This discloses these systems’ limited reliability in overtouristed cities when it comes to rank quality, as well as the potential risks deriving from their large and uncontrolled adoption. The study concludes that a governance system is needed that is more respectful and inclusive of these places’ specific requirements
Collective road transport infrastructural characteristics and spaces in the urban road regulation
No full textSummary-The Road Regulation regulates the characteristics, uses and management of the several road elements for all the allowed traffic components. The collective transport is one of the priority components, especially for urban mobility, but it is generally neglected in the technical specifications of the current Italian Road Regulations. Starting from the critical issues that emerged from the analysis of existing Road Regulations and based on the international literature, professional experience and current legislation, the note provides technical standards about the infrastructural characteristics and the spaces to be allocated to the collective road transport. This is to be intended as a starting reference to develop the specific part of Road Regulation for urban areas. Although not completely exhaustive, the results obtained allow to frame the fundamental elements of the collective transport according to a systemic vision. Also, they recommend strong cooperation between the network managers and the technicians in charge of drafting the Road Regulations, to establish the most suitable standards for the urban area of reference
Evaluating the viability of a Tram-Train system. A case study from Salento (Italy)
Full text linkTram-Train (TT) combines features of railway and tramway systems by mean of tailored light railway vehicles. Although TT systems offer several benefits such as efficiency, effectiveness, and quality, they also incur some issues (e.g., rolling-stock design) that might discourage city administrations from implementation. Further, whilst this system is quite well-known, the related literature is still scarce and relegated to presenting qualitative descriptions of general features, technical issues, and experiments with some TT components. Detailed viability analyses of TT systems implementation in metropolitan areas and evaluation of their economic feasibility have been poorly investigated. This case study addresses previous gaps by a two-tier framework. The first - a context analysis - focuses on a city's features and applies an analytical hierarchy process resulting in a weighted global score to assess the suitability of the specific context for a TT system. If the city achieves a positive evaluation for implementation (according to the score), then the second tier brings a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) into play to assess the project's economic sustainability. Analysis of the Salento (Italy) metropolitan area proved to be a peculiar case study, as it presented uncommon features for TT system employment compared to ideal scenarios from the literature. Nevertheless, by the context analysis, the area resulted viable for such an innovative and interoperable transport system. Indeed, the results highlighted that resource availability and political strategies were far more relevant in the analysis than the spatial and technical features, as well as the need for improving connections. Next, two TT project alternatives were compared through the CBA, and both resulted in economically sustainable, being the net present value positive, the internal rate of return larger than the discount rate and the benefit-cost ratio larger than one. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was applied for the best alternative. It showed that TT investment costs, the marginal cost of accidents, and the demand shifted from the suburban bus and car, respectively, were reported as critical variables. Nonetheless, no switching values were registered that could realistically threaten the assessment of the economic profitability of the TT project. As far as the authors know, these results provide the first empirical evidence of the TT system's viability and its economic feasibility in a mid-sized city based on the development of previous literature recommendations. Hence, this case study may provide a benchmark tool for policymakers, transit experts and the scientific community to assess TT projects
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