An Innovative Approach to Energy Consumer Segmentation—A Behavioural Perspective. The Case of the Eco-Bot Project

Energy consumption impacts the environment, humans’ well-being, comfort and quality of life. The article aimed to develop the original model of energy consumer segmentation, based on behavioural variables, which influence consumer decisions and motivations regardless of demographic, geographic and socio-cultural differences. The innovative contribution is the segmentation procedure, which fills the existing research gap and can be treated as a universal tool serving various groups of stakeholders for creating and implementing sustainable development policies. The methodology used for the segmentation is based on the original algorithm and involves classifying a consumer into the most appropriate group based on the measurement of the distance between the ideal class representative and a particular respondent. Several distance measures (e.g., Sokal–Michener, Goodall, Lin) were used, while the similarity of those classifications was verified using the adjusted Rand index. The segmentation involved adopting—a priori—five basic classes of consumers, varying in terms of motivation to save energy. The validation performed on a sample of 1606 respondents, carried out as part of the eco-bot project, verified both the classification approach adopted in the study and the accuracy of the assumptions. The application of the distance measures chosen for the study allowed for the assignment of 96.1% of the respondents to the appropriate classes, which yielded the following distribution: EI (33.9% of the respondents); DS (33.1%), AE (17.2%), O (7%) and I (4.9%).

Identification and prioritization of stage-level KPIs for BOT projects – evidence from Turkey

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be used for stage-based performance assessment of build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects.Design/methodology/approachThis research was conducted through focus group discussions and face-to-face questionnaires. Firstly, stage-level KPIs for BOT projects were identified by conducting a literature survey. The list of KPIs that can be used for measuring performance at different stages of a BOT project was finalized by conducting focus group discussions with 12 participants. The data related to the importance of identified KPIs were collected via a face-to-face questionnaire in which 30 high-level managers participated. Based on these data, KPIs were prioritized considering eight different stages of a BOT project by using Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS).FindingsThe research findings reveal that 63 stage-level KPIs can be used for measuring the performance of BOT projects at eight different stages, which are “feasibility study and preliminary plan,” “announcement and submission of application,” “evaluation and selection,” “negotiation and signing of concession agreement,” “design,” “construction,” “operation” and “transfer.” The most important KPIs were determined as “comprehensiveness of project technical feasibility,” “detailed tendering procedure,” “effectiveness of concessionaires' technical knowledge/capability evaluation,” “good relationships between government and concessionaire,” “technology transfer,” “effectiveness of quality control,” “effectiveness of facility management” and “effectiveness of hand-back management” for each stage. The findings can be used by companies to evaluate performance at each stage of a BOT project and, if necessary, take the necessary actions for performance improvement at the stage level.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation is the size of the sample, which represents the perspectives of 30 Turkish high-level managers on KPIs in BOT projects. Besides, the selected method, namely, TOPSIS, does not provide quality measures related to the outputs; therefore, it is difficult to see the inconsistencies among the experts.Practical implicationsThe study findings will help in devising appropriate performance evaluation practices for BOT projects to overcome the shortfalls of the existing practices and systems proposed in the literature and help in achieving the superior performance while developing infrastructure through the BOT route.Originality/valueThis paper proposes a process-based approach for measuring the performance of a BOT project considering eight different stages. It fills a research gap in the public–private partnership literature by focusing on stages rather than phases. The results can be used by practitioners to establish stage-level performance management systems for BOT projects.

Effective Back Channel Response to User Queries using Banking Bot Artificial Intelligent System

The banking bot project is to create an Intelligent machine for banks to read the users queries and respond at a faster rate. The aim of the project is to develop a system for banks where users/ customers can ask any bank related questions like loan, services, account, schemes, policy etc. The application will be developed for web users. The machine recognizes the queries and answers appropriately. Even if the user does not frame sentence properly, system will understands the query and answer accordingly based on the frequent matching datasets. There is no specific format to follow for the user to ask questions. This project helps to create a user friendly Artificial Intelligent system to resolve user’s basic queries