Edited by:

Martin Klarmann (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
Friederike Paetz (Technical University Clausthal)
Alexa B. Burmester (Kühne Logistics University)
Raoul V. Kübler (ESSEC Business School, Paris)

With this special issue on “The Value of User Generated Data for Managerial Decision Making,”Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research invites submissions of papers that contribute to the theme of the 2024 Conference of the Working Group “Data Analysis and Classification in Marketing (AG MARKETING)” within the Gesellschaft für Klassifikation (Data Science Society) e.V., hosted by Kühne Logistic University in Hamburg from May 10 to May 11, 2024.

In recent years, the rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology have opened up new avenues for leveraging User Generated Content (UGC) to enhance marketing strategies. This special issue aims to explore the potential of such synergies and shed light on the emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities in this evolving landscape. The special issue intends to delve into several key areas of interest. Firstly, investigating how businesses can effectively leverage current developments in AI to tap into the vast pool of UGC and utilize it as a valuable resource for improving marketing decision-making. Secondly, exploring the integration of UGC and AI tools to proxy, enrich, or replace existing scale-based measures used to depict customer mindset metrics. Furthermore, the studying the influence of UGC on consumer decision-making and developing an understanding of the types of UGC that are most relevant for specific consumer segments. By exploring these topics, we hope to foster a deeper comprehension of the role of UGC and AI in shaping consumer behavior, enabling marketers to make informed decisions and develop effective strategies in an increasingly data-driven and digitally connected world.

This call for papers relates to, for example, the following research questions:

• Which User Generated Content can solve which marketing problems?
• How can we track and trace customer satisfaction through User Generated Content?
• How can we approximate established customer mindset metrics through User Generated Content?
• What is the role of User Generated Content in customer decision making and how can we understand its relevance for different customer segments?
• How can we unveil customer insights through image data analysis?
• Does AI have a WTP and what does it represent?
• How can we advance survey research with the help of Generative AI and Large Language Models?

We welcome conceptual, theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions that address aspects related to the conference theme. All contributions should clearly address the practical and theoretical implications for business decisions.

The special issue may include both original research papers as well as contributions from conference keynote speakers. While attending the conference is not required for the submission of a manuscript, we encourage potential authors to attend the conference.

Submission guidelines and deadlines

When preparing your submission, please check the Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research website for guidelines on style requirements and paper length: https://www.springer.com/journal/41471

Manuscript submission for the review process should be done in the Editorial Manager of Springer at https://www.editorialmanager.com/SBUR

Please explicitly indicate “Special Issue – Value UGD” in the submission.

Submission deadline: August 31, 2024
First reports expected by December 31, 2024
Expected publication date: Summer 2025

Inquiries for the special issue can be done by email to the coordinating Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research Guest Co-Editors

• Martin Klarmann (martin.klarmann@kit.edu)
• Friederike Paetz (friederike.paetz@tu-clausthal.de)
• Alexa B. Burmester (alexa.burmester@klu.org)
• Raoul V. Kübler (kubler@essec.edu)

or to the responsible Editor-in-Chief Thomas Gehrig (thomas.gehrig@univie.ac.at)