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An Examination of Indexes for Determining the Number of Clusters in Binary Data Sets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Evgenia Dimitriadou ,
Sara Dolničar  and
Andreas Weingessel
Evgenia Dimitriadou
Affiliation:
Institut für Statistik und Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie, Technische Universität Wien
Sara Dolničar
Affiliation:
Institut für Tourismus und Freizeitwirtschaft, Wirtschaftsuniversität wien
Andreas Weingessel*
Affiliation:
Institut für Statistik und Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie, Technische Universität Wien
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to A. Weingessel, Institut fOr Statistik, Technische Universitfit Wien, Wiedner Hauptstrage 8-10/1071, A-1040 Wien, AUSTRIA.
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Abstract

The problem of choosing the correct number of clusters is as old as cluster analysis itself. A number of authors have suggested various indexes to facilitate this crucial decision. One of the most extensive comparative studies of indexes was conducted by Milligan and Cooper (1985). The present piece of work pursues the same goal under different conditions. In contrast to Milligan and Cooper's work, the emphasis here is on high-dimensional empirical binary data. Binary artificial data sets are constructed to reflect features typically encountered in real-world data situations in the field of marketing research. The simulation includes 162 binary data sets that are clustered by two different algorithms and lead to recommendations on the number of clusters for each index under consideration. Index results are evaluated and their performance is compared and analyzed.

Keywords

number of clustersclustering indexesbinary dataartificial data setsmarket segmentation
Type
Articles
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 67 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 137 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

Author names are listed in alphabetical order.

This piece of research was supported by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) under grant SFB#010 (“Adaptive Information Systems and Modeling in Economics and Management Science”).

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and especially the associate editor for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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