Using GAs to Support Feature Weighting and Instance Selection in CBR for CRM

Case-based reasoning (CBR) has been widely used in various areas due to its convenience and strength in complex problem solving. Generally, in order to obtain successful results from CBR, effective retrieval of useful prior cases for the given problem is essential. However, designing a good matching and retrieval mechanism for CBR systems is still a controversial research issue. Most prior studies have tried to optimize the weights of the features or selection process of appropriate instances. But, these approaches have been performed independently until now. Simultaneous optimization of these components may lead to better performance than in naive models. In particular, there have been few attempts to simultaneously optimize the weight of the features and selection of the instances for CBR. Here we suggest a simultaneous optimization model of these components using a genetic algorithm (GA). We apply it to a customer classification model which utilizes demographic characteristics of customers as inputs to predict their buying behavior for a specific product. Experimental results show that simultaneously optimized CBR may improve the classification accuracy and outperform various optimized models of CBR as well as other classification models including logistic regression, multiple discriminant analysis, artificial neural networks and support vector machines.