Title: A scoping review for churn prediction: step-by-step tutorial and reproducible R code

Authors: Alamir Costa Louro; Clara Gonçalves Pugirá; Rogerio Souza Murari

Addresses: Federal University of Espírito Santo, Av. Fernando Ferrari, 514, Goiabeiras,Vitória – ES, 29075-910, Brazil ' FAESA, Av. Vitória, 2220, Monte Belo, Vitória – ES, 29053-360, Brazil ' FGV – Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Av. 9 de julho, 2029, Ed. JFK, Bela Vista, São Paulo – SP, 01313-902, Brazil

Abstract: This paper analyses the state of the art regarding churn prediction using machine learning (ML) algorithms, which have been published in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. We performed a step-by-step scoping review to show the relationship between ML and churn prediction. To provide insights on how to publish papers, we used a citation prediction negative binomial (NB) regression, and the bibliometric results can be useful for both beginners and experienced researchers. Telecommunications is the most important context for ML use in churn prediction, followed by banks, Saas, retail, and others. The most common approach is to quantitatively test many ML algorithms and their performance indexes, followed by ensembles and neural networks. This literature does not focus on traditional hypothesis tests or scales/constructs development. From the intersection of the foundations of ML and churn prediction, we provide objective trends for future studies.

Keywords: bibliometric; scoping review; churn; machine learning; ML.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBFMI.2024.137643

International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence, 2024 Vol.9 No.2, pp.160 - 178

Received: 27 Mar 2023
Accepted: 02 Apr 2023
Published online: 02 Apr 2024 *

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