Information Entropy Theory Based Recognition of the Validity of Contextual Information of Restaurants: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Contextual information plays a key role in personalized recommendations. However, not all contextual information plays a positive role in personalized recommendations. Therefore, it is critical to identify the effective contextual information to realize personalized recommendations. This study aims to develop a set of feasible context importance calculation methods that can identify effective contextual information in different application scenarios. The information entropy of each contextual dimension is calculated, and the validity of the context compared according to the magnitude of its entropy is determined based on the informational entropy theory. Subsequently, this approach is applied to hotel and catering service data to determine the valid context in the dining domain. The experimental results indicate that location, work-rest condition, weather, mood and companionship considerably influence consumers’ behaviour and decisions in a catering environment, and the user preference in such contexts should be carefully considered.

Keywords

• context
• context validity
• informational entropy, personalized recommendation
• restaurant