Dr Devdeep Maity, Associate Professor of Marketing, College of Business at Delaware State University. His research focuses on retailing strategy, customer product relations and social media, specifically customer participation, perceived ownership and vlogging. He has published in several journals, including Psychology and Marketing,

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Prepurchase information search may be viewed as an expense and/or an experience. The authors argue that theory is unclear in explaining the effect of each form of search on a consumer's ultimate product return intentions. Alternative hypotheses are developed in relation to core theory that predict inconsistent effects of search upon both product satisfaction and return intentions. Results ultimately suggest that a consumer's investment in search that is viewed as an expense weakens satisfaction with a product, while prompting return intentions. Conversely, search viewed as an experience heightens satisfaction and diminishes return intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications of the results are discussed.