FACULTY SPOTLIGHT SERIES
TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Returns to Consumer Search for Information
and Its Determinants
When: Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 12:25-12:55
Where: Stoddard Hall 308
Who: Dr. Shweta Singh, School of Management
Description of the session. Given the relative importance of consumer search in the consumer
purchase decision process, the focus on returns to search has been limited. In the past, results
regarding the gains to search have been unclear and measures of returns to search have either
been subjective or limited to price reductions. In this paper, we provide a more comprehensive
approach to measuring returns to search. We define returns to search as the efficiency with which
consumers are able to make optimal choices regarding the chosen brand of automobiles in the
characteristics space. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to create an efficient production
frontier of returns to search, we are able to identify the customers that lie on the efficient frontier
and quantify the distance of inefficient customers from this frontier. An efficient frontier is
defined by a set of customers that are able to acquire a given level of characteristics of a
particular brand of automobiles for the minimum cost. This paper is an attempt to understand the
returns to search, the impact of search on consumer efficiency, and the magnitude of its impact.
Our findings indicate that Internet users and more experienced and educated consumers tend to
make more efficient choices while consumer efficiency goes down with age.
Description of the series: Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, this lunchtime (“brown
bag”) series of presentations features ongoing research, scholarship, and creative efforts by
faculty members in the College. The purpose of the series is to further promote those activities
at TWU and to foster collegial and interdisciplinary relations among faculty members across the
College and the University. Although the presentations are by faculty members in the College,
anyone interested in the sessions is welcome. Presentation proposals are reviewed by an
advisory committee consisting of representation from all the major areas of the College. Future
sessions: March 11, Dr. Omary on custom-made molecules; March 24, Dr. Maguire on
scholarship of teaching and learning about science; April 2, Tanya Synar on “experiencing the
landscape.”
For further information: To contact the presenter: SSingh2@mail.twu.edu; for information about the
series: SSouris@twu.edu.