De-centering the (Traditional) User: Multistakeholder Evaluation of Recommender Systems
Robin Burke, Gediminas Adomavicius, Toine Bogers, Tommaso Di Noia, Dominik Kowald, Julia Neidhardt, Özlem Özgöbek, Maria Soledad Pera, Nava Tintarev, and Jürgen Ziegler. 2025. “De-centering the (Traditional) User: Multistakeholder Evaluation of Recommender Systems”. arXiv pre-print. DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2501.05170.
Abstract
Multistakeholder recommender systems are those that account for the impacts and preferences of multiple groups of individuals, not just the end users receiving recommendations. Due to their complexity, these systems cannot be evaluated strictly by the overall utility of a single stakeholder, as is often the case with more mainstream recommender system applications. In this article, we focus our discussion on the challenges of multistakeholder evaluation of recommender systems. We bring attention to the different aspects involved — from the range of stakeholders involved (including but not limited to providers and consumers) to the values and specific goals of each relevant stakeholder. We discuss how to move from theoretical principles to practical implementation, providing specific use-case examples. Finally, we outline open research directions for the RecSys community to explore. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}