With the success of online social networks and microblogs such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, the phenomenon of influence exerted by users of such platforms on other users, and how it propagates in the network, has recently attracted the interest of computer scientists, information technologists, and marketing specialists. One of the key problems in this area is the identification of influent...

In recent years, the concept of relationship value has attracted increasing attention among marketing researchers and practitioners alike. Despite a growing body of literature in this area, no generally accepted conceptualization of relationship value has emerged from the marketing literature. The present paper investigates the theoretical foundations of relationship value and identifies seven ...

Given the explosive growth of customer and transactional information, data mining can potentially discover new knowledge to improve managerial decision making in marketing. This study proposes an innovative approach to data mining using Bayesian Networks and evolutionary programming and applies the methods to direct marketing data. The results suggest that this approach to knowledge discovery c...

The present work proposes a novel approach for a future shopping system. Customers’ personal data are protected by a blockchainbased storage network. Based on the bitcoin protocol, the system transacts encrypted data in a tamper-proof way and is able to run secure multiparty computations while no one but the data owner has access to the input data. Thus, a potential customer is able to allow a ...

Relationship marketing in consumer markets came to the forefront of marketing in the 1990s. However, theory development in this area lags behind applications and prescriptions. We attribute this lack of development, in part, to researchers asking the wrong questions. A case is made for reassessing the epistemological and ontological assumptions about relationships in consumer markets. We argue ...

Despite the importance and pervasiveness of marketing, almost nothing is known about the neural mechanisms through which it affects decisions made by individuals. We propose that marketing actions, such as changes in the price of a product, can affect neural representations of experienced pleasantness. We tested this hypothesis by scanning human subjects using functional MRI while they tasted w...

We develop a metaheuristic procedure for multiobjective clustering problems. Our goal is to find good approximations of the efficient frontier for this class of problems and provide a means for improving decision making in multiple areas of application and in particular those related to marketing. The procedure is based on the tabu and scatter search methodologies. Clustering problems have been...

The need for social marketing research in the area of breastfeeding is highlighted by the failure of campaigns to increase breastfeeding rates over the past two decades in developed countries. This is despite evidence of the health benefits of longer breastfeeding duration to both baby and mother, and the high levels of expenditure on these campaigns. Whilst past campaign approaches typically f...

The development of research explaining the structure and operations of interfirm relations and networks in marketing channels and business markets is described. The focus is on the main contributors and research themes that have underpinned the development of marketing thought in this area since the beginning of the 20th century. I show how ideas have been borrowed from other disciplines such a...

Certainly one of the most important public sector issues facing policy makers and marketers is that dealing with the marketing of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). A public policydesirable and sometime mandated product, uncertain technology, and unknown demand in the market place continue to pose enormous public sector marketing questions in this area. The present study utilises diffusion theory t...