Abdolreza Eshghi

Identifying Groups: A Comparison of Methodologies

This paper describes and compares three clustering techniques: traditional clustering methods, Kohonen maps and latent class models. The paper also proposes some novel measures of the quality of a clustering. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first contribution in the literature to compare these three techniques in a context where the classes are not known in advance.

A Review of Software Packages for Data Mining

We present to the statistical community an overview of five data mining packages with the intent of leaving the reader with a sense of the different capabilities, the ease or difficulty of use, and the user interface of each package. We are not attempting to perform a controlled comparison of the algorithms in each package to decide which has the strongest predictive power, but instead hope to give an idea of the approach to predictive modeling used in each of them. The packages are compared in the areas of descriptive statistics and graphics, predictive models, and association (market basket) analysis. As expected, the packages affiliated with the most popular statistical software packages (SAS and SPSS) provide the broadest range of features with remarkably similar modeling and interface approaches, whereas the other packages all have their special sets of features and specific target audiences whom we believe each of the packages will serve well. It is essential that an organization considering the purchase of a data mining package carefully evaluate the available options and choose the one that provides the best fit with its particular needs.

Measuring the international digital divide: an application of Kohonen self-organising maps

With the help of a Kohonen self-organising algorithm, this paper presents a mapping and analysis of the global digital divide along with its main drivers. Several broad groups and subgroups are identified, consisting of countries that are similar in their digital development and in a number of other attributes. We find that the digital divide seems to occur synchronously with divisions in income, social, demographic and infrastructure measures. By examining a large dataset of 160 countries over a short period of three years, we find evidence of both convergence and divergence among the countries over time. We expect these findings to inform the ongoing debate on drivers of the International Digital Divide (IDD). In addition, this paper provides a novel visualisation of the digital divide and its predictors on a two-dimensional grid. Extensions of this work, with the availability of more years of data, could investigate the potential convergence of countries to particular patterns of digital development.

Demographic and Life Style Determinants of Household Consumption Patterns

The authors propose a model of household consumption based on existing literature and provide empirical evidence substantiating the typology. The basic empirical issue focuses on the role of life s...

Socioeconomic Convergence in Europe One Decade After the EU Enlargement of 2004: Application of Self-Organizing Maps

This article uses self-organizing maps (SOMs) to examine convergence between European states, giving special attention to the states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that joined the European Union (EU) during its monumental expansion in 2004. To augment the literature on income convergence, the robust conceptual framework employed here is based upon Terry Jordan’s much broader socioeconomic and political definition of Europe. Using associated variables, the study applies the Kohonen data visualization technique to highlight statistical clustering and movement of countries across three time periods from 2001 to 2013. Kohonen U-matrix and component maps reveal several distinct clusters of countries that remain stable over time, including Europe’s industrialized core and Scandinavia, as well as a cluster of laggard Soviet successor states at the opposite extreme. The eleven new EU countries that had been part of the eastern bloc show evidence of real (β-) convergence toward the European core, but at various paces. The Baltic states of Lithuania and Latvia experience some of the greatest observable convergence, followed by Estonia, the Visegrád states, and the former Yugoslav states of Croatia and Slovenia. Other countries that demonstrate considerable movement during the time period under investigation include some crisis-battered Mediterranean countries, plus Montenegro, Kosovo, and Turkey. While most of the evident statistical mobility is positive, Ireland experiences nominal and real divergence during the period 2011–13. In the context of Europe’s ongoing recession and the aftermath of the UK’s referendum, these findings have implications for two uncertainties: the very survival of the EU and its prospects for further expansion.

Using SOMbrero to examine the economic convergence of European countries from 2001–2013

This paper uses SOMbrero visualizations to examine two socio-economic dimensions of European states, generated by a factor analysis of time-series data from 2001–2013. We analyze SOMs for 41 countries with regard to “Old Capital” and “New Capital”, two factors that are generated from 12 variables. SOMbrero reveals evidence of various convergence paths over time for these two factors. This approach also clearly uncovers the differential impacts of the European recession upon clusters of European countries. In conclusion, we demonstrate that SOMs are a useful tool for better understanding European convergence.

Impact of online advertising on adolescent’s brand attitudes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of online advertising on advertising message involvement (AMI) and brand attitude formation among adolescent consumers. More specifically, the impact of advertising copy type and individual task orientation on brand attitude is examined through the mediating role of AMI among a sample of adolescents in India. Moderating role of product’s technology intensiveness is also examined. Design/methodology/approach Experimental design with three-way factorial analysis of variance was conducted along with independent t-tests and regressions. Findings The results show that the effect of ad copy type and individual task orientation on brand attitude is mediated by AMI. While both narrative and factual ad copies are found to increase AMI among the respondents, narrative ad copies generate greater AMI when compared with factual ad copies, irrespective of respondents’ task orientation or technology intensiveness of the product. Managerial insights regarding the type of online advertising that would generate a greater AMI and more favorable brand attitude among adolescent consumers are discussed. Originality/value The contribution of this research lies in providing the empirical evidence regarding the type of online advertising that can help marketers generate a greater AMI and cultivate more favorable brand attitude among the adolescent consumers.

The impact of other customer perception on consumer-brand relationships

Purpose Extant research evidence demonstrates that customer satisfaction in a service encounter is influenced by other customer perception (OCP). However, scholarly research on the impact of OCP on brand love and the moderating influence of customers’ attachment styles in the context of hospitality industry is scarce. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap in the literature. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from customers of five and three-star hotels in India. Regression-based process analysis (Hayes, 2013) was used to test the proposed set of hypotheses. Findings The data analysis shows that OCP predicts brand love through the mediation of satisfaction. Individual’s anxious attachment style positively moderates “other customer perception-satisfaction” relationship, and avoidant attachment style negatively moderates the same relationship. Thus the effect of OCP is positively moderated by anxious attachment style, and negatively moderated by avoidant attachment style. Originality/value The value of this study lies in quantitatively investigating the roles played by OCP and individual attachment styles in shaping brand love in hospitality industry. In contrast to findings from previous research, the findings from this study suggest that anxious attachment style positively influences brand satisfaction and formation of brand love.

European Integration and Developing Countries: A Survey of International Students

In this exploratory study, we report the attitudes of international MBA students form the developing nations about their concerns over EC 1992 program and the measures they would advocate to their governments for appropriately responding to the EC 1992 developments. The results of the study indicate student concerns involve detrimental effects on their countries’ exports and the unfavorable marketing environment in the EC markets. To mitigate those effects, the students expect their governments undertaking long range export promotion programs and developing political linkages with the trading partners in EC. The paper discusses theoretical underpinnings of the findings, providing directions for the future research.

Marketing Strategy in an Integrated Europe: Some Research Propositions

European Community 1992 (EC92) reforms have created an opportunity to extend marketing strategy concepts and theories to a global context. This paper uses the Miles and Snow typology to hypothesize how U.S. firms might adapt to the changes currently taking place within the framework of the European integration.