Amplifon Chair in Customer Science

Full Professor in Marketing. She worked at Michigan State University and the University of Southern California before returning to Italy and to Bocconi, where she is Head of the Department of Marketing and course director of the courses Innovation and Marketing Analytics, Deep Learning for Computer Vision, and Social Media Marketing. She is Associate Editor of Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and sits in the editorial board of the Journal of Product Innovation Management and the Journal of International Marketing. In 2017 she won the Emerald Citations of Excellence Award, which recognizes the 50 best articles published by the 300 best journals in management, business and economics worldwide. She also won the Best Paper Award in the area "Marketing to and Around the World" at the AMA (American Marketing Association) 2017 Winter Conference.

Joint Purpose

Amplifon and Bocconi University’s fruitful collaboration led to the establishment of the Amplifon Chair in Customer Science in 2021. It aims to deepen the understanding of customers, their journey and their loyalty through the most advanced tools of computer science and artificial intelligence. The Chair is held by Professor Gaia Rubera, Head of the Department of Marketing.

Developments in computer science make it possible to transform into data conversations that customers have with a company through the most diverse channels: a post on Twitter, a picture on Instagram or a call to a call center. Artificial intelligence techniques allow us to understand how consumers will respond to various company actions and then define marketing actions which create value both for the company and for the customer.

Gaia Rubera

Amplifon Chair in Customer Science

We are grateful to Amplifon, who allows us to intensify our activities in advanced fields such as the impact on marketing of computer science and artificial intelligence. Bocconi has invested a great deal in this area in recent years, first by hiring young academic talents such as Gaia Rubera, then by developing new and advanced academic programs, like the BSc in Economics, Management and Computer Science, the BSc in Mathematical and Computing Sciences for Artificial Intelligence and the MSc in Data Science and Business Analytics.

Gianmario Verona

Rector, Bocconi University

We are very proud to be able to start this journey with Bocconi University. The in-depth knowledge of our customers, their needs and their purchasing experience are a value of crucial importance for our development strategies. This is why, as Amplifon, we believe it is fundamental to leverage the talents of the future. We are very excited to be able to do so together with a top Italian and global institution through a long-term collaboration, testifying to the Group's commitment to and focus on the younger generations and their education.

Enrico Vita

CEO, Amplifon

Core Activities

Core Activities

Research

The Amplifon Chair in Customer Science’s research program aims to develop a deeper understanding of customers through the use of artificial intelligence techniques. At the beginning of the last decade the most developed tools for this purpose involved textual analysis, used to interpret social media posts, with the addition of computer vision over the last few years, used to analyze images. The new frontier that Rubera intends to explore involves audio analytics, which make it possible, for example, to identify and match non-verbal behavioral cues of a call center operator, like the speed of presentation, the tone or the use of sighs and pauses, with the customer’s reply.

Publications

Students

The Chair’s activities include an intense program of research and initiatives that will engage students in educational challenges, putting them in direct contact with businesses.

Communication and Dissemination

Over the years, the Chair’s activities will be enriched by the dissemination of Professor Rubera’s research results thanks to her participation in seminars and conferences organized by the most prestigious academic and institutional organizations.

Links
Bocconi and Amplifon Join Forces to Innovate the Customer Experience Through Artificial Intelligence

Link utili

Bocconi e Amplifon insieme per innovare la customer experience del cliente con l'intelligenza artificiale