Quantitative Methods in Marketing

Overview

This interdisciplinary project investigates different topics relevant in quantitative marketing. Currently pursued streams of research include:
  • Market segmentation

    Unresolved questions in market segmentation research are investigated such as developing a conceptual framework of segmentation approaches, improving visualization for market segmentation research results, and generalising the perceptions based market segmentation framework.

  • Brand image (branding) methodology and measurement

    Measurement artifacts of typical brand images studies are determined that lead to implausible results, as, for instance, low repeat rates of associating brands with attributes.

  • Answer format effects

    Ordinal scales are the most popular format in marketing research despite significant methodological problems associated with them: strong assumptions about scale properties have to be made as well as trusting that respondents have the same perception of scale values. We investigate under which circumstances ordinal scales can be substituted by binary scales.

AASC Project Members

External Project Partners

Funding

  • Australian Research Council (ARC)
    • ARC Linkage International "Advanced Issues in Market Segmentation Research" (LX0559628, 2005-2007)
    • ARC Linkage International "Response style heterogeneity in empirical marketing research" (LX0881890, 2008-2010)

Publications

  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. Evaluation of structure and reproducibility of cluster solutions using the bootstrap. Marketing Letters, 2009. Accepted for publication on 2009-07-20. [ bib | DOI | preprint ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. Environmentally friendly behavior-Can heterogeneity among individuals and contexts/environments be harvested for improved sustainable management? Environment and Behavior, 41(5):693-714, September 2009. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. Response style contamination of student evaluation data. Journal of Marketing Education, 31(2):160-172, August 2009. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. Does one size fit all?-The suitability of answer formats for different constructs measured. Australasian Marketing Journal, 17(1):58-64, 2009. [ bib | preprint ]
  • Sara Dolnicar, Bettina Grün, and Huong Le. Cross-cultural comparisons of tourist satisfaction: Assessing analytical robustness. In Atila Yüksel, editor, Tourist Satisfaction and Complaining Behavior: Measurement and Management Issues in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pages 137-150. Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, NY, 2008. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. Challenging "Factor-Cluster Segmentation", Journal of Travel Research, 47(1):63-71, 2008. [ bib | DOI | preprint ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. Selective marketing for environmentally sustainable tourism. Tourism Management, 29(4):672-680, 2008. [ bib | DOI ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. An investigation of tourists' patterns of obligation to protect the environment. Journal of Travel Research, 46(4):381-391, 2008. [ bib | DOI | preprint ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. Question stability in brand image measurement-Comparing alternative answer formats and accounting for heterogeneity in descriptive models. Australasian Marketing Journal, 15(2):26-41, 2007. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. Assessing analytical robustness in cross-cultural comparisons. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 1(2):140-160, 2007. [ bib | DOI | preprint ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. Cross-cultural differences in survey response patterns. International Marketing Review, 24(2):127-143, 2007. [ bib | DOI ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. How constrained a response: A comparison of binary, ordinal and metric answer formats. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 14(2):108-122, March 2007. [ bib | DOI | preprint ]
  • Bettina Grün, Sara Dolnicar, and John R. Rossiter. Extending Rungie et al.'s model of brand image stability to account for heterogeneity. In CD Proceedings of the 36th European Marketing Academy Conference, 2007. [ bib | preprint ]
  • Melanie Randle, Sara Dolnicar, and Bettina Grün. Segmenting the volunteer market: learnings from an australian study. In CD Proceedings of the 36th European Marketing Academy Conference, 2007. [ bib | preprint ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. The user-friendliness of alternative answer formats. In CD Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC), 2006. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Bettina Grün. Answer format suitability - The interdependence of answer format and construct measured. In CD Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC), 2006. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. Delivering the right tourist service to the right people-a comparison of segmentation approaches. The Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism, 5(2):189-207, 2004. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. Segmenting markets by bagged clustering. Australasian Marketing Journal, 12(1):51-65, 2004. [ bib | .pdf ]
  • Sara Dolnicar, Bettina Grün, and Friedrich Leisch. Time efficient brand image measurement - is binary format sufficient to gain the market insight required? In Jose L. Munuera, editor, Proceedings of the 33rd European Marketing Academy Conference, 2004. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. Testing for structural change over time of brand attribute perceptions in market segments. In Hamparsum Bozdogan, editor, Statistical Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, chapter 17, pages 297-307. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, Florida, 2004. [ bib ]
  • Friedrich Leisch and Sara Dolnicar. Development of a posteriori market segments over time: A tracking procedure. In Michael Saren and Alan Wilson, editors, Proceedings of the 32nd European Marketing Academy Conference, page 3.9.4, 2003. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. Winter tourist segments in Austria: Identifying stable vacation styles using bagged clustering techniques. Journal of Travel Research, 41(3):281-292, 2003. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. Behavioral market segmentation of binary guest survey data with bagged clustering. In Georg Dorffner, Horst Bischof, and Kurt Hornik, editors, Artificial Neural Networks - ICANN 2001, volume 2130 of LNCS, pages 111-118. Springer Verlag, 2001. [ bib | .pdf ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. Behavioral market segmentation using the bagged clustering approach based on binary guest survey data: Exploring and visualizing unobserved heterogeneity. In Josef A. Mazanec, Geoffrey I. Crouch, J. R. Brent Ritchie, and Arch G. Woodside, editors, Consumer Psychology of Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure, volume 2, pages 243-252. CAB International, UK, 2001. ISBN 0-85199-535-7. [ bib ]
  • Sara Dolnicar and Friedrich Leisch. Behavioral market segmentation using the bagged clustering approach based on binary guest survey data: Exploring and visualizing unobserved heterogeneity. Tourism Analysis, 5(2-4):163-170, 2000. [ bib ]
  • Evgenia Dimitriadou, Sara Dolnicar, Friedrich Leisch, and Andreas Weingessel. More insight into clustering-comparison of cluster algorithms and evaluation of indexes for determining the correct number of clusters. Methods of Psychological Research, Special Issue: Abstracts of the European Meeting of the Psychometric Society, 4(1):65-66, 1999. [ bib ]