Social Learning, Consumer Search and Firms' Dynamic Strategies: A Theoretical Approach

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In 2022, I continued working on my two projects related to consumer search and social learning. One project focuses on examining how consumers' search behaviors are influenced by their changing tastes and a psychological bias known as projection bias. Contrary to my initial prediction that higher search costs would increase firms' marketing power, resulting in higher equilibrium prices and profits, I discovered that, in the presence of consumers' changing tastes and projection bias, higher search costs may actually reduce firms' market power and lead to lower equilibrium prices. Additionally, I confirmed that higher search costs help address consumers' problem of excessive searching, thereby improving social welfare.In my second subproject, I explored how the presence of loyal consumers affects the searching behavior of non-loyal consumers. I found that a firm may strategically allow its rival to be searched first in order to alleviate competition. While this result was initially demonstrated through numerical examples in 2021, I further developed it using more comprehensive methodologies in 2022.Furthermore, I completed a paper that examines how firms choose their pricing schemes when faced with heterogeneous consumer groups. My findings reveal that personalized pricing is the unique Nash equilibrium outcome. However, contrary to existing literature suggesting that personalized pricing yields lower profits compared to uniform pricing, I discovered that personalized pricing can be more advantageous. I published this paper in the SSRN discussion paper series.