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

2022年，我继续致力于我的两个与消费者搜索和社交学习相关的项目。一个项目的重点是研究消费者的搜索行为如何受到他们不断变化的品味和一种被称为投影偏差的心理偏差的影响。与我最初的预测相反，我认为更高的搜索成本会增加公司的营销力，导致更高的均衡价格和利润，但我发现，在消费者不断变化的品味和预测偏差的存在下，更高的搜索成本实际上可能会降低公司的市场力量，导致更低的均衡价格。此外，我证实，更高的搜索成本有助于解决消费者过度搜索的问题，从而改善社会福利。在我的第二个子项目中，我探索了忠诚消费者的存在如何影响非忠诚消费者的搜索行为。我发现，一家公司可能会战略性地允许竞争对手首先被搜索，以缓解竞争。虽然这一结果最初是在2021年通过数字例子证明的，但我在2022年使用更全面的方法进一步发展了这一结果。此外，我完成了一篇论文，研究了面对不同的消费者群体时，企业如何选择他们的定价方案。研究结果表明，个性化定价是纳什均衡的唯一结果。然而，与现有文献表明个性化定价比统一定价产生的利润更低相反，我发现个性化定价可能更具优势。我在SSRN讨论论文系列中发表了这篇论文。

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.