讲座时间：7月22日9:15-11:45

讲座地点：管楼G506

讲座主题：Theory-Driven Multi-Branch Attention Neural Network for Modeling Complex Online Engagement

讲座嘉宾简介

Associate Professor Yupin Yang joined the Beedie School of Business in September 2007 from the University of Toronto where she earned a PhD in marketing. A love of sports spills over into her research, which focuses on sports marketing and branding strategies. Her research also includes search advertising, and pricing in hosipitality industry. Her research has been published in many top research journals including Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing, and Annals of Tourism Research.

讲座摘要

In this presentation, Dr. Yang introduces a novel theory-driven multi-branch attention neural network model designed to analyze complex online engagement behaviors, with a focus on multiplayer gaming contexts. The model integrates consumer theories including flow theory and self-determination theory within a hierarchical, multi-branch neural network architecture, which improves interpretability and effectively captures user heterogeneity. Key branches address match-making disparities, player performance metrics, simulating events, and behavioral patterns, with attention mechanisms dynamically weighting feature importance across user clusters. Empirical results from a dataset of 11,300 players reveal actionable insights, such as the critical role of match-making algorithms and the varying impact of social features across user segments. The study not only advances methodological applications of neural networks in marketing but also offers practical strategies for personalized engagement in digital platforms. Dr. Yang further discusses the model’s adaptability to other marketing domains rich in behavioral data.