Database Systems Journal (Jan 2016)

Big Data, the perfect instrument to study today's consumer behavior

  • Cristina STOICESCU

Journal volume & issue
Vol. VI, no. 3
pp. 28 – 42

Abstract

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Consumer behavior study is a new, interdisciplinary and emerging science, developed in the 1960s. Its main sources of information come from economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology and artificial intelligence. If a century ago, most people were living in small towns, with limited possibilities to leave their community, and few ways to satisfy their needs, now, due to the accelerated evolution of technology and the radical change of life style, consumers begin to have increasingly diverse needs. At the same time the instruments used to study their behavior have evolved, and today databases are included in consumer behavior research. Throughout time many models were developed, first in order to analyze, and later in order to predict the consumer behavior. As a result, the concept of Big Data developed, and by applying it now, companies are trying to understand and predict the behavior of their consumers.

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