SBIR Phase I: Improving Business-Consumer Commerce Via Mobile Social Networking Services

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes to investigate an approach towards solving key problems experienced commonly in in-store business-consumer transactions, namely a lack of a priori information about the consumer's identity, and a lack of insight into the consumer's personal interests, which influence buying decisions. The feasibility of an innovative solution that combines the power of social networks with mobile computing will be explored. Achieving this unique mobile social networking solution will require challenging research innovations in three areas: (1) developing the appropriate wireless software and systems infrastructure to seamlessly integrate mobile phones with online social networks, and (2) realizing practical data mining solutions to link consumer preferences with business products/services; (3) ensuring that consumer and business privacy concerns are met. An outcome of the research will be a novel mobile social networking data service for cell phones and online servers that could fundamentally transform the quality and portability of business-consumer commerce. The broader societal impacts of the mobile social networking technology resulting from this proposal's Phase I research have the potential to be substantial, as there are strong incentives to adopt the technology and accelerate its implementation into the marketplace. Businesses will have a strong incentive to adopt this proposal's unique mobile social networking technology so that more can be learned about the prospective customer that just walked into the store, and instant targeted discounts can be delivered on merchandise that matches the consumer's interests, thereby driving up consumer loyalty and enabling transactions that may not otherwise occur. Conversely, consumers have an incentive to adopt the technology in order to obtain those discounts, thereby saving their money and time while also enhancing the quality of their business-consumer transaction.