The Role of the Management Sciences in Research on Personalization

53 Pages Posted: 18 May 2003

See all articles by B. P. S. Murthi

B. P. S. Murthi

University of Texas at Dallas - Department of Marketing

Sumit Sarkar

University of Texas at Dallas - Department of Information Systems & Operations Management

Date Written: October 30, 2002

Abstract

We present a review of research studies that deal with personalization. We synthesize current knowledge about these areas, and identify issues that we envision will be of interest to researchers working in the management sciences. We take an interdisciplinary approach that spans the areas of economics, marketing, information technology, and operations. We present an overarching framework for personalization that allows us to identify key players in the personalization process, as well as, the key stages of personalization. The framework enables us to examine the strategic role of personalization in the interactions between a firm and other key players in the firms value system. We review extant literature on the strategic behavior of firms, and discuss opportunities for analytical and empirical research in this regard. Next, we examine how a firm can learn a customer's preferences, which is one of the key components of the personalization process. We use a utility-based approach to formalize such preference functions, and to understand how these preference functions could be learnt based on a customers interactions' with a firm. We identify well-established techniques in management sciences that can be gainfully employed in future research on personalization.

Suggested Citation

Murthi, B. P. S. and Sarkar, Sumit, The Role of the Management Sciences in Research on Personalization (October 30, 2002). Review of Marketing Science (ROMS) Working Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=407940 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.407940

B. P. S. Murthi

University of Texas at Dallas - Department of Marketing ( email )

Dallas, TX
United States
972-883-6355 (Phone)
972-883-2799 (Fax)

Sumit Sarkar (Contact Author)

University of Texas at Dallas - Department of Information Systems & Operations Management ( email )

P.O. Box 830688
Richardson, TX 75083-0688
United States
972-883-6854 (Phone)
972-883-6811 (Fax)

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