508 • Big Data Analytics
to you based on your prior purchasing habits? Do you purchase Apple or
Android products because you have a sunken cost in music or apps from
one or another of these platforms? Do you use free e-mail that supports
itself by advertising to you? Do you belong to a loyalty program, such as
airline miles or hotel points, which occasionally oers you prizes or cou-
pons? Have you resisted switching from the Kindle to the Nook (or vice
versa) because you would lose all of your books?
All of these are examples of business strategies designed to create loyalty
through oering benets that create path dependence. Path dependence,
according to Wikipedia, “explains how the set of decisions one faces for
any given circumstance is ...