Artificial Neural Networks: An Introduction and Application in a Consumer Behavior Setting

When investigating relationships between variables of interest in Consumer Behavior, researchers have used a myriad of statistical tools in order to uncover and understand the impact of important demographic, psychological, environmental, and situational relationships on attitudes and behaviors. In this paper, the authors discuss a relatively new tool in the marketer’s tool box--the artificial neural network, also referred to as neural networks. Following the summary of the development and application of an neural networks in business and marketing, the authors present a neural network application for determining attitude toward a web site based on the color and congruency of advertisements placed on the site.