Sören W. Scholz

Measuring Consumer Preferences for Complex Products: A Compositional Approach Based on Paired Comparisons

Conjoint analysis has become a widely accepted tool for preference measurement in marketing research, though its applicability and performance strongly depend on the complexity of the product or service. Therefore, self-explicated approaches are still frequently used because of their simple design, which facilitates preference elicitation when large numbers of attributes need to be considered. However, the direct measurement of preferences, or rather utilities, has been criticized as being imprecise in many cases. Against this background, the authors present a compositional consumer preference measurement approach based on paired comparisons, otherwise known as PCPM. The trade-off character of paired comparisons ensures that the stated judgments are more intuitive than traditional self-explicated preference statements. In contrast to the latter, PCPM accounts for response errors and thus allows for the elicitation of more precise preferences. The authors benchmark PCPM against adaptive conjoint analysis and computer-assisted self-explication of multiattributed preferences to demonstrate its relative validity and predictive accuracy in two empirical studies using complex, high-involvement products. They find that PCPM yields better results than the benchmark approaches with respect to interview length, individual hit rates, and aggregate choice share predictions.

An internet‐based approach to environmental scanning in marketing planning

Purpose – This paper introduces a new approach for autonomous internet‐based environmental scanning, which combines concept of weak signals with “information foraging theory”.Design/methodology/approach – Early detection and rapid action with respect to developments in the operating environment is a prerequisite for successful marketing planning. Accordingly, this paper proposes a three‐stage process for overcoming practical obstacles to the detection and use of weak signals from the operating environment, in particular how to identify relevant and useful documents in harsh information environments such as the internet. Its functionality is demonstrated by means of a human‐machine experiment.Findings – A framework based on information foraging theory is well suited to the task of determining the relevance of documents and facilitates the automation of information search processes. A prototype environmental scanning system of this type outperformed human experts in a typical scanning task.Research limitati...

A survey of the challenges and pifalls of cluster analysis application in market segmentation

Market segmentation is a widely accepted concept in marketing research and planning. Although cluster analysis has been extensively applied to segment markets in the last 50 years, the ways in which the results were obtained have often been reported to be less than satisfactory by both practitioners (Yankelovich & Meer 2006) and academics (Dolnièar 2003). In order to provide guidance to those undertaking market segmentation, this study discusses the critical issues involved when using cluster analysis to segment markets, makes suggestions for best practices and potential improvements, and presents an empirical survey that seeks to provide an up-to-date assessment of cluster analysis application in market segmentation within a six-stage framework. Analyses of more than 200 journal articles published since 2000, in which cluster analysis was empirically used in a marketing research setting, indicate that many critical issues are still ignored rather than addressed adequately.

Detecting, Assessing and Monitoring Relevant Topics in Virtual Information Environments

The ability to assess the relevance of topics and related sources in information-rich environments is a key to success when scanning business environments. This paper introduces a hybrid system to support managerial information gathering. The system is made up of three components: 1) a hierarchical hyperbolic SOM for structuring the information environment and visualizing the intensity of news activity with respect to identified topics, 2) a spreading activation network for the selection of the most relevant information sources with respect to an already existing knowledge infrastructure, and 3) measures of interestingness for association rules as well as statistical testing facilitates the monitoring of already identified topics. Embedding the system by a framework describing three modes of human information seeking behavior endorses an active organization, exploration and selection of information that matches the needs of decision makers in all stages of the information gathering process. By applying our system in the domain of the hotel industry we demonstrate how typical information gathering tasks are supported. Moreover, we present an empirical study investigating the effectiveness and efficiency of the visualization framework of our system.

The Number of Clusters in Market Segmentation

Learning the ‘true’ number of clusters in a given data set is a fundamental and largely unsolved problem in data analysis, which seriously affects the identification of customer segments in marketing research.

AHP versus ACA – An Empirical Comparison

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been of substantial impact in business research and particularly in managerial decision making for a long time. Although empirical investigations (e.g. Scholl et al. (2005)) and simulation studies (e.g. Scholz et al. (2006)) have shown its general potential in consumer preference measurement, AHP is still rather unpopular in marketing research.

Robust Preference Measurement A Simulation Study of Erroneous and Ambiguous Judgement’s Impact on AHP and Conjoint Analysis

A method of treating arrhythmia in mammals which comprises administering 8-chloro- or 8-bromo-3-( beta -diethylaminoethyl)-4-methyl-7-ethoxycarbonylmethoxycoumarin (or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof) thereto. When formulated in conventional pharmaceutical preparations, the active ingredient may be administered orally or endovenously.

The Quality of Prior Information Structure in Business Planning - An Experiment in Environmental Scanning

A method for improving the water repellency of a naturally porous, moisture-containing paper web by treating the web with a coating composition containing as its active coating ingredient an alkyl alkoxysiloxane which reacts with the moisture contained in the paper web to produce a polymer and an alcohol as a by-product. The polymer substantially improves the water repellency of the paper web while the web retains substantially the porosity and the strength characteristics it had in the untreated state.

Determining the Attractiveness of Product Attributes in Consumer Goods Markets using POS Scanner Data

This paper suggests a simple Poisson regression framework that facilitates the estimation of parameters which, similar to established conjoint analysis, allow inferences on the relative effect a certain product attribute has on the overall willingness to purchase the respective consumer good. Furthermore, we discuss options for considering demand heterogeneity and show how the suggested approach to preference analysis can be used to predict the presumptive sales of new products intended to be introduced into the product category of interest. Both the usability and the benefits of the suggested framework are demonstrated using POS scanner data on two typical consumer goods categories provided by a German supermarket chain. In both cases, the available results provide significant information for new product development and retail assortment planning.

Detecting and Debugging Erroneous Statements in Pairwise Comparison Matrices

The invention relates to a process for the determination of uranium (VI) or dialkyl dithiophosphoric acid present in an organic solvent. In this process, a dialkyl dithiophosphoric acid or a uranium (VI) salt is added to the organic solvent so as to convert all the uranium or dialkyl dithiophosphoric acid present in said solvent into a mixed uranium (VI) - dialkyl dithiophosphoric acid-organophosphorus compound complex. The optical density of the solvent containing the complex in solution is measured so as to determine the concentration of this solvent in the complex, together with its uranium dialkyl dithiophosphoric acid content. Application to the determination of traces of uranium in tributylphosphate obtained from the reprocessing of irradiated fuels.