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In the past decades the preoccupation of decision-makers towards innovation and sustainable development has gained a major importance in the policy of most countries in Europe. On one hand, efficient innovation can differentiate a country or a region from another and make a difference in the intense increasing economic, technological and social competition. On the other hand, the orientation towards sustainable development assures a clean and unpolluted, social oriented and healthy environment as a framework for the growth of a country or a region. In many cases, innovation and sustainable development go hand in hand, as innovations contribute to the development of clean technologies, while sustainable societies assure the proper environment and background for stimulating the innovation research. The objective of this research is to determine the cluster of countries in Europe which are rather oriented to innovation or to sustainable development or both and to forecast their future developments and tendencies. In order to achieve this objective, the multivariate cluster analysis was applied with the help of the SPSS program, for data provided by the Eurostat for several innovation, sustainable development and contextual indicators. In a first step, for each of the analyzed countries, the values of the indicators have been collected for the same period and the correlations among them have been determined. In the second phase the number of clusters and the cluster membership of each country was determined, by running the Ward cluster analysis. Based on the results, the characteristics of each cluster of countries was defined.

The analysis and determination of typologies of tourism consumers has been a major concern for scientists, specialists and companies as well. Knowing the demographic and motivational factors that determine consumers to buy tourism products can have a major impact on the marketing strategy by a more efficient targeting of customers. This article presents the results of a research that aims to determine the factors which influence the buying decision for tourism products and the clusters of consumers resulted from these factors. 90 persons have been surveyed pursuing the determination of the most important factors for buying a tourism product and the correlation between them. The factor analysis and the cluster analysis have been applied with the help of the SPSS program. The results of the factor analysis group the items into six factors. In a second phase, the consumers have been divided into three categories based on a hierarchical Ward cluster analysis. The three clusters have been defined and analyzed and recommendations for the future research have been given.

The use of electric cars has increased in recent years and has an accelerating development. Despite its advantages and growing trends, it still faces the challenge of limited autonomy range of batteries and under developed infrastructure. Both aspects are key factors in the decision of consumers to buy an electric car. In order to do so, consumers have to feel comfortable with the autonomy range of their electric car and the possibility to reload it, by having a well-developed charging stations infrastructure. Our paper deals with the perception of consumers regarding the risks associated with the limited autonomy of cars and expectation towards charging infrastructure. In a quantitative study, we analyze from two perspective the level of consumers' comfort related to the autonomy of their electrical mobility. On the one hand we analyze the different perception related to the autonomy of the electric car. On the other hand, we analyze the expectation towards the infrastructure of charging stations. As expected, consumers feel more comfortable with autonomy ranges of more than 500 kilometers for electric cars. For the charging infrastructure, consumers prefer distances shorter than 50 kilometers between charging stations, in order to feel comfortable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of service robots and chatbots has changed the way companies interact with their customers. Several automated tasks have been taken over by AI, such as communication with customers, processing of orders and also other automated tasks. To measure the impact AI will have on our society, we have analyzed AI's agency by testing different scenarios of AI's ability to perform human-specific tasks such as having own political opinions, religious beliefs and other situations which go beyond the simple execution of tasks. The results show that consumers perceive a low probability that AI has such thoughts. However, AI with stronger anthropomorphic characteristics is more likely to have agency to perform these types of tasks. According to our study, a human-like appearance enhances the perception that AI can have political views, religious beliefs and an own identity. Moreover, people consider that AI with anthropomorphic characteristics should be responsible for their mistakes and punished if they do something wrong. In spite of this, AI, independent of its anthropomorphic characteristics, is not believed to have the ability to solve mankind problems such as reducing pollution, stabilizing the world economy or to ensure world peace. Our research also shows that men are more inclined to attribute agency to AI compared to women, which perceive a lower AI agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A successful implementation of artificial intelligence and robots in the service industry requires the acceptance and trust of consumers. In order to be able to provide similar services as human employees, AI devices and robots have to have the ability to interact and relate to the human consumer and, at the same time, to provide the expected information. Researches in the field of consumer services have shown that empathy and emotions can improve the relation between service employees and consumers, by providing more enjoyable interactions and a better exchange of information. In our research we investigate if the attachment between the consumer and AI devices can facilitate a higher quality of information exchange, a better and more pleasant interaction and if it determines a higher self-disclosing behavior from the consumer. Our results confirm that attachment has a positive impact on consumer-AI interactions, improving the perceived enjoyment of the conversation, a better quality of the exchanged information and determining a higher self-disclosing behavior. These results have important implications on the design of the future consumer-AI-interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of social media, influencers have gained an important role in the marketing strategies of companies. Their constant presence in social media, determined by the creation and posting of content as well as their permanent interaction with the consumers, has created them a great advantage and credibility in the eyes of consumers. The fact that they are not perceived as a form of marketing, increases their credibility and ability to influence their followers. In this article, we present the results of a research about the consumers' perception towards fashion influencers depending on age category. Our results show that fashion influencers have the ability to influence the fashion style adopted by the consumers, but not necessarily the buying decision. The fashion style of young consumers is more likely to be shaped by influencers, while people with ages between 25-40 years are least impressed by influencers. In a surprising way, even consumers older than 40 years shape their fashion style based on influencers, but are not influenced directly in their buying decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence is one of the main topics characterizing the 21st century. The quick development of these new intelligent systems brings challenges into the daily life of consumers and companies. Even though artificial intelligence contributes to an increased quality of life, by simplifying the life of its users and the processes of companies, in the same time it can affect the cognitive abilities of humans. By taking over different tasks and having access to information, the AI will influence human decision-making and the human will be somehow dependent on the actions and decisions of the AI. In this paper we focus on the impact of the social appreciation on the consumers' perception regarding anthropomorphic AI. We have investigated the extent to which anthropomorphic AI devices impact human capabilities and the social appreciation of owning an AI. The results show that AI with human-like physical appearance are perceived with higher anthropomorphic characteristics, but the physical appearance of the AI does not affect the social appreciation and the human capabilities of the owner. The average values of the items, measuring the direct perception show that consumers rather believe that AI does not affect their human abilities and owning a robot is not strongly influenced by the social reference group. This result has to be further investigated in a third person perspective and in a different social context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world dominated by data, information is one of the most important resources. But simply collecting and storing data is not enough, as data has to be transformed into information. Researchers agree on the fact that both computing power and analytical methods allow this at an unprecedented level. Given the consistent and wide applicability of such systems and technologies today, the present work goes into possible uses of cognitive computing and sets its focus on the retail sector. Cognitive computing generally helps with consumer profiling, deriving their preferences, delivering suitable product recommendations, and contouring the consumer experience when interacting with companies. The main aim of the present work is to investigate consumer experiences with the help of cognitive computing and lay ground for further research on this topic. In the following sections of the present article, we define the concept of cognitive computing, with regard to its meaning for multiple, diverse data streams and types. We then empirically investigate the use of CC for shaping and enriching consumer experiences with the help of cognitive virtual assistants (CVAs). After conducting quantitative research, we discuss differences in perceptions between two age groups (under and over 40 years). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developments in the field of technology changed the way in which consumers behave, inform themselves and communicate with each other. This change in behavior influences the way in which companies have to transmit the marketing message to the consumer. Besides the internet, which is nowadays one of the most used communication channels, in the past years the mobile phone gained more and more importance in the everyday life of consumers. Therefore, the easiest way for a company to communicate with its consumers is through the mobile phone. Therefore a new type of marketing was developed: the mobile marketing. This article presents the definition of mobile marketing with its advantages and disadvantages, as well as the ways in which a company can make mobile marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]