Assessing Personalized Recommendation Services Using Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory

Abstract

There is an accuracy-diversity dilemma with personalized recommendation services. Some researchers believe that accurate recommendations might reinforce customer satisfaction. However, others claim that highly accurate recommendations and customer satisfaction are not always correlated. Thus, this study attempts to establish the causal factors that determine customer satisfaction with personalized recommendation services to reconcile these incompatible views. This paper employs statistical analyses of simulation to investigate an accuracy-diversity dilemma with personalized recommendation services. To this end, we develop a personalized recommendation system and measured accuracy, diversity, and customer satisfaction using a simulation method. The results show that accurate recommendations positively affected customer satisfaction, whereas diverse recommendations negatively affected customer satisfaction. Also, customer satisfaction was associated with the recommendation product size when neighborhood size was optimal in accuracy. Thus, these results offer insights into personalizing recommendation service providers. The providers must identify customers’ preferences correctly and suggest more accurate recommendations. Furthermore, accuracy is not always improved as the number of product recommendation increases. Accordingly, providers must propose adequate number of product recommendation.