Pricing and Returns in the Era of Big Tech: Implications of Information Asymmetry Reversa

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Publicat a:ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (2025)
Autor principal: Hassani, Kiarash Mohammad
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
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100 1 |a Hassani, Kiarash Mohammad 
245 1 |a Pricing and Returns in the Era of Big Tech: Implications of Information Asymmetry Reversa 
260 |b ProQuest Dissertations & Theses  |c 2025 
513 |a Dissertation/Thesis 
520 3 |a Optimizing product returns is a key concern for manufacturers and retailers. While returns can be costly, they also offer consumers a valuable option: purchase under uncertainty and return if their realized valuation is lower than the price. Traditional economic models assume classical information asymmetry—consumers know their preferences, while firms do not. However, in today’s data-rich environments, firms increasingly gain deeper insights into consumer behavior—sometimes even surpassing the consumers’ own understanding of their preferences—leading to a shift in the balance of informational power.This dissertation explores the implications of reversed information asymmetry and its impact on pricing and return policy. Chapter 1 provides a broad discussion of reversed information asymmetry, emphasizing how advances in data collection and analytics can shift informational power. Increasingly, the previously less-informed party may possess more accurate or comprehensive information than the other party. We examine the consequences of this shift not only in business, but also in education, government, and public policy, where data-driven decisions have the potential to reshape traditional roles and dynamics. The chapter also introduces our central research questions.Chapter 2 reviews the literature on information asymmetry, pricing, and return policies. It positions our contribution within existing research and motivates the need to study different information regimes in pricing-return models. Chapter 3 develops a formal model to optimize the pricing and return policy of a monopolist under three regimes: classical asymmetry, symmetric information, and reversed asymmetry—where the firm fully observes each consumer’s valuation. In this chapter returns are assumed to be costless to consumers. We derive optimal strategies for the firm in each regime and compare profits, consumer surplus.Chapter 4 extends the model by introducing return hassle costs, which consumers incur when returning products but do not benefit the firm. We examine how these costs alter firm strategy under each information regime. We also introduce restocking fees as a decision variable. Chapter 5 provides a brief summary of our findings and offers several directions for future research in this domain. 
653 |a Behavior 
653 |a Predictive analytics 
653 |a Profits 
653 |a Salvage value 
653 |a User generated content 
653 |a Reputation management 
653 |a Ethics 
653 |a Online tutorials 
653 |a Distance learning 
653 |a Chatbots 
653 |a Asymmetry 
653 |a Accountability 
653 |a Insurance industry 
653 |a Consumers 
653 |a Valuation 
653 |a Power 
653 |a Decision making 
653 |a Empowerment 
653 |a Transparency 
653 |a Access to information 
653 |a Surveillance 
653 |a Customization 
653 |a Artificial intelligence 
653 |a Educational technology 
653 |a Web studies 
653 |a Management 
773 0 |t ProQuest Dissertations and Theses  |g (2025) 
786 0 |d ProQuest  |t ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global 
856 4 1 |3 Citation/Abstract  |u https://www.proquest.com/docview/3283373877/abstract/embedded/7BTGNMKEMPT1V9Z2?source=fedsrch 
856 4 0 |3 Full Text - PDF  |u https://www.proquest.com/docview/3283373877/fulltextPDF/embedded/7BTGNMKEMPT1V9Z2?source=fedsrch