11 research idea notes tagged “marketing”. Read them as Markdown, JSON or an Atom feed.
Emotion recognition and affective computing appear on 325 recent papers, almost all in AI journals; only 19 carry a consumer, marketing or ethics keyword. The EU now bans emotion recognition at work and in schools, but not in shops or advertising. Does reading faces and voices tell marketers anything reliable, and should it be allowed?
Papers in the last 30 days — emotion recognition: 2 · affective computing: 2
Virtual influencers, avatars and virtual humans appear on 33 recent papers in the management and AI journals, with 9 in the last quarter against about 7 per quarter before. Brands now run computer-generated personalities with millions of followers. Do they sell, do followers care that no one is there, and what should disclosure rules require?
Papers in the last 30 days — virtual influencers: 1
Dynamic pricing appears on 51 recent papers and price discrimination on 28, mostly in operations research and economics; 29 of 91 such papers touch consumer welfare, but price fairness appears on 3. Retailers and venues have faced backlash over surge prices, and some have retreated. Where is the line that consumers will not accept, and what does it cost firms to cross it?
Papers in the last 30 days — dynamic pricing: 2 · price fairness: 1
Customer retention and churn appear on 33 recent papers and subscription pricing and models on 10, across the AI, operations research and finance journals. Subscriptions now cover software, cars, media and razors, and regulators are forcing easy cancellation. How much of subscription revenue depends on people not cancelling, and what happens when they can?
Papers in the last 30 days — subscription pricing: 1 · customer retention: 1
Privacy concerns, GDPR, data protection and consumer privacy appear on 81 recent papers, mostly about what consumers feel. Few study what the rules did to the firms that advertise. When tracking became harder, large platforms kept their data and small advertisers lost theirs. Did privacy rules raise concentration?
Papers in the last 30 days — GDPR: 1 · privacy concerns: 2
Virtual reality, the metaverse, augmented reality and immersive technologies appear on 123 recent papers, but the topic is fading, with 21 papers in the last quarter against about 33 per quarter before; 23 of the papers concern retail or consumers. Which immersive applications survived the hype cycle, and what do their users actually buy?
Papers in the last 30 days — metaverse: 1
Online reviews appear on 54 recent papers, and 17 of 73 review papers carry a fake, manipulation or detection keyword. Fake reviews were once cheap but detectable; language models make them cheap and fluent. Can platforms still tell, how much of the review stock is now synthetic, and do consumers still trust ratings?
Papers in the last 30 days — online reviews: 7
Luxury brands, luxury consumption and counterfeit goods appear on 32 recent papers, mostly in management, with 5 in the last quarter against about 8 per quarter before. High-quality counterfeits and a booming resale market have blurred what authenticity means. Do counterfeits erode brand value, and does authentication technology restore it?
Papers in the last 30 days — luxury brands: 3 · counterfeit goods: 1
Customer satisfaction and customer engagement are among the fastest-growing keywords in the management journals, and firms keep replacing service agents with chatbots. The EU AI Act requires telling people when they are talking to an AI. Does disclosure lower satisfaction, and can good service recovery make up for it?
Papers in the last 30 days — chatbots: 6 · customer satisfaction: 7
Purchase intention, purchase decisions and consumer choice appear on 178 recent papers, mostly in management and economics, but only 14 of them carry a generative-AI, conversational-AI or recommendation keyword. Shoppers are starting to let AI assistants search, compare and buy. Who gets recommended, and what happens to brands and prices when a model makes the choice?
Papers in the last 30 days — purchase intention: 13 · online shopping: 2
Advertising appears on 15 recent papers, online advertising on 9 and AI-generated advertising on 3, in the management and economics journals, while AI-generated content appears on 33. Brands now generate images, copy and whole campaigns with models. Does disclosure of AI use change how consumers respond, and does generated advertising work?
Papers in the last 30 days — advertising: 2 · AI-generated content: 1