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21 – 30 of over 17000Basit Shahzad, Ikramullah Lali, M. Saqib Nawaz, Waqar Aslam, Raza Mustafa and Atif Mashkoor
Twitter users’ generated data, known as tweets, are now not only used for communication and opinion sharing, but they are considered an important source of trendsetting, future…
Abstract
Purpose
Twitter users’ generated data, known as tweets, are now not only used for communication and opinion sharing, but they are considered an important source of trendsetting, future prediction, recommendation systems and marketing. Using network features in tweet modeling and applying data mining and deep learning techniques on tweets is gaining more and more interest.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, user interests are discovered from Twitter Trends using a modeling approach that uses network-based text data (tweets). First, the popular trends are collected and stored in separate documents. These data are then pre-processed, followed by their labeling in respective categories. Data are then modeled and user interest for each Trending topic is calculated by considering positive tweets in that trend, average retweet and favorite count.
Findings
The proposed approach can be used to infer users’ topics of interest on Twitter and to categorize them. Support vector machine can be used for training and validation purposes. Positive tweets can be further analyzed to find user posting patterns. There is a positive correlation between tweets and Google data.
Practical implications
The results can be used in the development of information filtering and prediction systems, especially in personalized recommendation systems.
Social implications
Twitter microblogging platform offers content posting and sharing to billions of internet users worldwide. Therefore, this work has significant socioeconomic impacts.
Originality/value
This study guides on how Twitter network structure features can be exploited in discovering user interests using tweets. Further, positive correlation of Twitter Trends with Google Trends is reported, which validates the correctness of the authors’ approach.
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John Fry and Jean-Philippe Serbera
The authors develop new quantitative methods to estimate the level of speculation and long-term sustainability of Bitcoin and Blockchain.
Abstract
Purpose
The authors develop new quantitative methods to estimate the level of speculation and long-term sustainability of Bitcoin and Blockchain.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors explore the practical application of speculative bubble models to cryptocurrencies. They then show how the approach can be extended to provide estimated brand values using data from Google Trends.
Findings
The authors confirm previous findings of speculative bubbles in cryptocurrency markets. Relatedly, Google searches for cryptocurrencies seem to be primarily driven by recent price rises. Overall results are sufficient to question the long-term sustainability of Bitcoin with the suggestion that Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Ripple may all enjoy technical advantages relative to Bitcoin. Our results also demonstrate that Blockchain has a distinct value and identity beyond cryptocurrencies – providing foundational support for the second generation of academic work on Blockchain. However, a relatively low estimated long-term growth rate suggests that the benefits of Blockchain may take a long time to be fully realised.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to an emerging academic literature on Blockchain and to a more established literature exploring the use of Google data within business analytics. Their original contribution is to quantify the business value of Blockchain and related technologies using Google Trends
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Concha Artola, Fernando Pinto and Pablo de Pedraza García
The purpose of this paper is to improve the forecast of tourism inflows into Spain by use of Google – indices on internet searches measuring the relative popularity of keywords…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve the forecast of tourism inflows into Spain by use of Google – indices on internet searches measuring the relative popularity of keywords associated with travelling to Spain.
Design/methodology/approach
Two models are estimated for each of the three countries with the largest tourist flows into Spain (Germany, UK and France): a conventional model, the best ARIMA model estimated by TRAMO (model 0) and a model augmented with the Google-index relating to searches made from each country (model 1). The overall performance of both models is compared.
Findings
The improvement in forecasting provided by the short-term models that include the G-indicator is quite substantial up to 2012, reducing out of sample mean square errors by 42 per cent, although their performance worsens in the following years.
Research limitations/implications
Deeper study and conceptualization of sources of error in Google trends and data quality is necessary.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates that while this new tool can be a powerful instrument for policy makers as a valuable and timely complement for traditional statistics, further research and better access to data is needed to better understand how internet consumers’ search activities translate (or not) into actual economic outcomes.
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Stefano Cosma and Daniela Pennetta
This work aims to explore the effects of (equity and non-equity) strategic alliances between banks and FinTechs on FinTechs' online visibility.
Abstract
Purpose
This work aims to explore the effects of (equity and non-equity) strategic alliances between banks and FinTechs on FinTechs' online visibility.
Design/methodology/approach
For a sample of 124 Italian FinTechs, the authors measured online visibility through their website ranking (Google PageRank) and website traffic (Google Trends). Consistent to the historical depth of these measures, the authors separately investigated the effect of equity and non-equity (contractual) agreements on online visibility by means of ordinal logistic regressions and diff-in-diff analysis.
Findings
Strategic alliances with banks enhance FinTechs' online visibility. Although both equity and contractual agreements positively influence the popularity of FinTechs' website achieved through the activity of internal and external online content creators (websites ranking), only equity agreements are effective in attracting Internet users (website traffic).
Practical implications
When deciding to interact with banks, FinTechs' managers should consider that equity agreements may be a powerful strategic choice for enlarging the customer base and boosting visibility of FinTechs.
Social implications
Fostering strategic alliances between banks and FinTechs contributes to FinTechs' growth, generating virtuous mechanisms of innovation, financial inclusion and better allocative efficiency of the financial system.
Originality/value
This work expands marketing knowledge and literature regarding online visibility determinants, by investigating the benefits of strategic alliances and cooperation in the market, while providing an empirical strategy replicable by future marketing studies.
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Anna Sung, Kelvin Leong, Paolo Sironi, Tim O’Reilly and Alison McMillan
The purpose of this paper is to explore two identified knowledge gaps: first, the identification and analysis of online searching trends for Financial Technology (FinTech)-related…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore two identified knowledge gaps: first, the identification and analysis of online searching trends for Financial Technology (FinTech)-related jobs and education information in UK, and second to assess the current strength of the FinTech-related job distribution in terms of job titles and locations in UK, job market in UK and what is required to help it to grow.
Design/methodology/approach
Two sets of data were used in this study in order to fill the two identified knowledge gaps. First, six years’ worth of data, for the period from September 2012 to August 2018 was collected from Google Trends. This was in the form of search term keyword text. The hypothesis was designed correspondingly, and the results were reviewed and evaluated using a relevant statistical tool. Second, relevant data were extracted from the “Indeed” website (www.indeed.co.uk) by means of a simple VBA programme written in Excel. In total, the textual data for 500 job advertisements, including the keyword “FinTech”, were downloaded from that website.
Findings
The authors found that there was a continuously increasing trend in the use of the keyword “fintech” under the category “Jobs and Education” in online searching from September 2012 to August 2018. The authors demonstrated that this trend was statistically significant. In contrast, the trends for searches using both “finance” and “accounting” were slightly decreased over the same period. Furthermore, the authors identified the geographic distribution of the fintech-related jobs in the UK. In regard to job titles, the authors discovered that “manager” was the most frequently searched term, followed by “developer” and “engineer”.
Research limitations/implications
Educators could use this research as a reference in the development of the portfolio of their courses. In addition, the findings from this study could also enable potential participators to reflect on their career development. It is worth noting that the motivations for carrying out an internet search are complex, and each of these needs to be understood. There are many factors that would affect how an information seeker would behave with the obtained information. More work is still needed in order to encourage more people to enter to the FinTech sector.
Originality/value
In the planning stage prior to launching a new course educators often need to justify the market need: this analysis could provide a supporting rationale and enable a new course to launch more quickly. Consequently, the pipeline of talent supply to the sector would also be benefitted. The authors believe this is the first time that a study like this had been conducted to explore specifically the availability and opportunities for FinTech education and retraining in UK. The authors anticipate that this study will become the primary reference for researchers, educators and policy makers engaged in future research or practical applications on related topics.
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Vinh Xuan Bui and Hang Thu Nguyen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of investor attention on stock market activity.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of investor attention on stock market activity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employed the Google Search Volume (GSV) Index, a direct and non-traditional proxy for investor attention.
Findings
The results indicate a strong correlation between GSV and trading volume – a traditional measure of attention – proving the new measure’s reliability. In addition, market-wide attention increases both stock illiquidity and volatility, whereas company-level attention shows mixed results, driving illiquidity and volatility in both directions.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, Nguyen and Pham’s (2018) study has been the only previous study identifying investor attention in Vietnam by using GSV as a proxy and examining the impacts of broad search terms about the macroeconomy on the stock market as a whole – on stock indices’ movements. The paper will contribute to this by quantifying GSV impacts on each stock individually.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences and similarities between computer ethics, internet ethics and cyberethics as reflected in the contents of the published…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences and similarities between computer ethics, internet ethics and cyberethics as reflected in the contents of the published literature as well as the search trends on Google.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper opted for an informetrics approach, and more specifically content analysis, to investigate the inter-relationships between computer ethics, internet ethics and cyberethics. The data sources for this study included Google Trends, Google Scholar and the Web of Science citation indexes. Different search queries were used, depending on the structure of each data source, to extract the relevant data sets.
Findings
Using different methods and techniques to analyse the data, the paper provides an alternative means of investigating relationships among concepts. The findings indicate that there is still no clear distinction between the concepts in terms of subject and title terms used to describe the published literature on the three concepts, as well as the research areas where the three concepts are applied. Going by the current trend, the paper envisages that cyberethics may, in the future, become a broader term to include computer ethics and internet ethics.
Research limitations/implications
The data sources that were selected for the study might have not been comprehensive in the coverage of the published literature on the three concepts and therefore there is need for further research, which will expand the scope of the data sources.
Practical implications
The paper’s findings may apply in the practice of indexing and abstracting as well as thesaurus construction as far as the three terms are concerned.
Originality/value
The paper offers an alternative technique that can be used to investigate relationships among concepts. The value of the paper could include curriculum development of programmes dealing with ethical issues that arise when developing and using computers and related technologies.
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Many recent chapters have investigated whether data from internet search engines such as Google can help improve nowcasts or short-term forecasts of macroeconomic variables. These…
Abstract
Many recent chapters have investigated whether data from internet search engines such as Google can help improve nowcasts or short-term forecasts of macroeconomic variables. These chapters construct variables based on Google searches and use them as explanatory variables in regression models. We add to this literature by nowcasting using dynamic model selection (DMS) methods which allow for model switching between time-varying parameter regression models. This is potentially useful in an environment of coefficient instability and over-parameterization which can arise when forecasting with Google variables. We extend the DMS methodology by allowing for the model switching to be controlled by the Google variables through what we call “Google probabilities”: instead of using Google variables as regressors, we allow them to determine which nowcasting model should be used at each point in time. In an empirical exercise involving nine major monthly US macroeconomic variables, we find DMS methods to provide large improvements in nowcasting. Our use of Google model probabilities within DMS often performs better than conventional DMS methods.
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The development of Big Data and online searching engine provides a good opportunity for studying petition in China. This study has constructed a set of indices for predicting…
Abstract
Purpose
The development of Big Data and online searching engine provides a good opportunity for studying petition in China. This study has constructed a set of indices for predicting petitions in China by using online searching engines and further explored the predicting role of economic, environment and public life risk perception in various petitions.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the study of Xue and Liu (2017), this research first re-classified offline petition by human and cluster analysis in terms of social risk perception and built online searching indices of the two sets of petition by using data from “Google Trend” and “Baidu Index.” Second, it analyzed the predicting effect of social risk perception on online searching indices of petition by using Granger causality analysis. Finally, this study integrated the results and selected significant paths from social risk perception to the two sets of petition.
Findings
The study found that the re-classification made by human was more appropriate than the categories made by cluster analysis in terms of social risk perception. For the two sets of petition, the correlations between offline petition and Baidu Index of petition were both more significant than that of Google index. Moreover, economic and finance and resource and environment risk perception had a significant predicting effect on more than one kind of online searching indices of petition.
Originality/value
The results have demonstrated the important role of economic issues in China on predicting petitions of the economic kind, as well as other kinds. They have also reflected the dominant social contradictions and their relationship in modern China.
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This empirical work studies the influence of investors’ Internet searches on financial markets.
Abstract
Purpose
This empirical work studies the influence of investors’ Internet searches on financial markets.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, an asset pricing model with six factors is used, and autoregression, heteroscedasticity and moving average are taken into account to extract the independent shocks of each variable. Subsequently, a causality in-mean and in-variance analysis is performed to test the influence of Google searches on financial market variables, specifically, to test whether there is an influence on the idiosyncratic returns of financial assets.
Findings
Unlike most of the literature, the results show that Google searches on the name of listed companies have little influence on the trend and volatility of asset returns. On the contrary, these searches are shown to have a significant influence on trading volumes in the following week.
Practical implications
When analyzing specific effects, such as the influence of Internet searches, on financial markets, it is necessary that the model must include financial properties (asset valuation models) and statistical characteristics (stylized facts); otherwise, the empirical results could be inconsistent, since, among other issues, statistical findings may not be robust given autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity, and if an asset valuation model is not considered, the specific effect analyzed could simply be an indirect effect of a risk factor excluded from the model.
Originality/value
The empirical evidence shows that individual investors using Google have a significant influence on volume only so that institutional investors using other sources of information drive market prices. This means that potential investors should only be interested in the Internet searches index if their interest is focused on trading volume
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