Evaluating Personalization: The AB Testing Pitfalls Companies Might Not Be Aware of-A Spotlight on the Automotive Sector Websites.

The importance of companies' website as instrument for relationship marketing activities is well-known both in the academia and in the industry. In the last decades, there has been great interest in studying how technology can be used to influence people's attitudes and motivate behavior change. With this, web personalization has had increasing research and practitioner interest. However, the evaluation of user interaction with companies' websites and personalization effects remains an elusive goal for organizations. Online controlled experiments (A/B tests) are one of the most commonly known and used techniques for this online evaluation. And, while there is clearly value in evaluating personalized features by means of online controlled experiments, there are some pitfalls to bear in mind while testing. In this paper we present five experimentation pitfalls, firstly identified in an automotive company's website and found to be present in other sectors, that are particularly important or likely to appear when evaluating personalization features. In order to obtain the listed pitfalls, different methods have been used, including literature review, direct, and indirect observation within organizations of the automotive sector and a set of interviews to organizations form other sectors. Finally, the list of five resulting pitfalls is presented and some suggestions are made on how to avoid or mitigate each of them.

Data maturity analysis and business performance. A Colombian case study.

CONTEXT: Colombia over the last decade has experienced a historic economic boom and Information Technology (IT) has been emerging as a tool to enable the competitiveness of companies. The last government (2014-2018) took different actions to explain how the use of data science and open data improve the business activity. The question to identify if there is a relationship between IT capacities, the organizational structure and the performance of the companies remains unresolved and is certainly an urgent issue for new government of Iván Duque. PURPOSE: Our study analyses the relationship between data structure and business performance measured through the efficiency of customer experience and provider operations processes. METHODOLOGY: our methodology is novel compared to previous researches which develop linear regression. It is based on the use of a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). ORIGINALITY/VALUE: our method allows to reveal multiple and complementary paths to achieve possible correlations between data and business performance. FINDINGS: Our results show that data consistency, data usage and data protection are the three more frequent conditions to a better customer experience and provider operations efficiency. Surprisingly, data-driven profile is a necessary but not sufficient condition. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: our conclusions allow practitioners to uncover the strength of the data to orientate their digital strategy. Our recommendations could be used for the new governmental program of digital revival for Small and Medium Enterprises.

Towards more sustainable food systems. Addressing food waste at school canteens.

Food Waste is a global significant issue for ethical, environmental and economic reasons, while its management is difficult due to its frequent low visibility. Individual choices and preferences are closely related to the generation of food waste although likely to be modified through education and awareness campaigns. In particular, school canteens are big generators of food waste and, at the same time, provide a great opportunity to improve habits regarding nutrition and education on sustainability, thus impacting the future of the food system. The end purpose of this research is identifying the causes of food waste and unveiling best practices towards its reduction. To achieve this goal, we have designed and developed a mixed methods research approach including semi-structured interviews with managers and staff in schools and catering firms and waste audits at four school canteens - measuring waste from over 10,000 pupil's trays. In order to avoid potential bias due to meal preference, the audit lasted three to five consecutive weekdays per school, thus comprising different menus. We estimated overall food waste between 60 and 100 g per pupil per day. Plate waste represented the highest source of waste, although a big disparity was found among the schools based on their different educational perspectives. Key food waste determinants found were: first, top management standpoint towards food waste and sustainability in general. Secondly, we observed relevant differences among the three catering business models studied, regarding the stages where food waste is usually produced. Finally, food waste was also impacted by the diverse resource availability among the schools. Despite this, the human factor arose as the most relevant one when aiming to minimise food waste.

The opportunity of tracking food waste in school canteens: Guidelines for self-assessment.

Reducing food waste is one of the key challenges of the food system and addressing it in the institutional catering industry can be a quick win. In particular, school canteens are a significant source of food waste and therefore embody a great opportunity to address food waste. The goal of our research is the development of guidelines for audit and self-assessment in measuring and managing food waste produced at school canteens. The purpose of the tool is to standardise food waste audits to be executed either by scholars, school staff or by catering companies with the objective of measuring and reducing food waste at schools. We performed a research among public and private schools and catering companies from which we obtained the key performance indicators to be measured and then pilot-tested the resulting tool in four schools with over 2900 pupil participants, measuring plate waste from over 10,000 trays. This tool will help managers in their efforts towards more sustainable organisations at the same time as the standardisation of food waste audits will provide researchers with comparable data. The study suggests that although there is low awareness on the amount of food wasted at school canteens, managers and staff are highly interested in the topic and would be willing to implement audits and reduction measures. The case study also showed that our tool is easy to implement and not disruptive.