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Explaining costumer reactions to real stockouts

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Abstract

The occurrence of stockouts remains an unsolved problem for retailers that provoke severe revenue and image losses, as well as greater customer dissatisfaction for both retailers and manufacturers. A literature review suggests a model of influential antecedents of consumers’ reactions to product unavailability. A field study then provides insights into true stockout situations, unlike a hypothetical research setting. With these data, this study reveals that loyalty and the presence of product alternatives have the greatest impacts on customer reactions. This result has significant theoretical and managerial implications due to the fact that results based on hypothetical settings did not hold.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Wolfgang Stoelzle, Chair of Logistic Management at the University of St. Gallen, for the excellent cooperation on this project as well as Melitta Haushaltsprodukte GmbH, Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund, Real,- SB-Warenhaus GmbH, SCA Hygiene Products AG and Woolworth GmbH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Strategic Industrial Marketing, University of Regensburg, Universitaetsstrasse 31, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Roland Helm, Thomas Hegenbart & Herbert Endres

Authors
  1. Roland Helm
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  2. Thomas Hegenbart
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  3. Herbert Endres
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roland Helm.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 7.

Table 7 Correlations between the antecedents
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Appendix 2

See Table 8.

Table 8 Explanatory variables and item formulations
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Helm, R., Hegenbart, T. & Endres, H. Explaining costumer reactions to real stockouts. Rev Manag Sci 7, 223–246 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-012-0079-8

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