Alumnus Tomasz Potrawa, who obtained a master’s degree in Economics and Business with a specialisation in Data Science and Marketing Analytics from Erasmus School of Economics in 2020, has seen his thesis turn into a publication in the Journal of Business Research. The paper is titled ‘How much is the view from the window worth? Machine learning-driven hedonic pricing model of the real estate market’.
According to Tomasz Potrawa and thesis supervisor and co-author Dr Anastasija Tetereva (Assistant Professor at the Econometric Institute), understanding the customers’ perception of the value of constituent characteristics of a good is among the key questions in any pricing strategy. Hedonic pricing allows such an analysis and is frequently applied in economic fields.
Although it is regarded as a benchmark in its original form, the availability of new data sources and the development of machine learning techniques created a space for further improvement. In the study they propose a general framework for applying machine learning tools to enhance the hedonic pricing model in several directions. They do this, first, by adding image and text sources to conventional data, and then by applying an advanced nonparametric prediction model.
Lastly, they use model agnostic analysis to uncover new pricing factors and unravel complex relationships that could not be captured by conventional models.
About Tomasz Potrawa
Tomasz Potrawa currently works as a data scientist in the Customer Insights team at Infor. He mostly focuses on propensity modelling and customer churn analysis. As of 1 March 2022, he will be joining AmRest as a data scientist, and mostly working on providing insights on customer purchasing behaviour.
In 2020 he obtained his master’s degree in Economics and Business specialising in Data Science and Marketing Analytics from Erasmus School of Economics. In this programme students focus on the tools and skills that are needed to analyse (big) data in modern businesses and turn it into meaningful insights.
The research interests of Tomasz include consumer behaviour, digital marketing and information retrieval. He participated in research studying aspects such as marketing mix modelling, propensity modelling and customer success management.
About the Journal of Business Research
The Journal of Business Research (JBR) applies theory developed from business research to actual business situations. Recognising the intricate relationships between the many areas of business activity, JBR examines a wide variety of business decisions, processes and activities within the actual business setting.
Theoretical and empirical advances in buyer behavior, finance, organisational theory and behavior, marketing, risk and insurance and international business are evaluated on a regular basis.
- Assistant professor