Supply chains are increasingly vulnerable to catastrophic events such as hurricanes or terrorist attacks. This is not only true because firms are more exposed to catastrophes, but also the result of investments made in recent years to operate supply chains with fewer human and capital resources, especially inventory. Consequently, there is today less “slack” available in supply chains to deal with catastrophic events. Thus, proactively planning for these types of events should be a priority for supply chain managers. A catastrophic event has a very low probability of occurrence but has significant consequences if it does occur. The goal of this research is to develop a process to proactively plan for catastrophic risk events through an integration of diverse research streams related to the management of risk. In particular, the proposed process builds upon an existing risk analysis framework by incorporating an innovative methodology used by the insurance industry to quantify the risk of multiple types of catastrophic events on key supply chain locations.

Logisticians have long wrestled with the problem of calibrating inventory levels to match a product availability policy. Errors result in either inventory overinvestment or in stockouts. The cost incurred in the former case, the cost of carrying inventory, can be measured.1 On the other hand, measuring the cost of stockouts remains an unresolved problem because the relationship between the stockout and the value of the potentially resulting lost sales has not been quantified.At the retail level, the principal difficulty in measuring the cost of a stockout is that it differs as a function of the consumer's response to the stockout. Consumers may decide to (1) substitute the item they sought, (2) delay the purchase or (3) leave the store and either forgo the purchase or search for the item elsewhere. In the long run, stockouts may also affect future patronage of the store; either by the same consumer or by others influenced by negative word-of-mouth. Understanding consumer response is therefore a first step in the measurement of the cost of stockouts. Understanding consumer reaction to retail stockouts will ultimately lead to better merchandising and inventory management policies. This paper reports results of a research study of consumer short-term response to stockouts. Prior research typically measured the frequency with which consumers choose one of the possible responses. In this research, we first compare the perceptions of consumers who recently experienced a stockout with those who did not. We then extend the literature by measuring a number of consumer specific (e.g. price shopper), situational (e.g. surprise with stockout), store-specific (e.g. perceived distance to a competing store) and demographic variables and then relating them to each of the consumer responses outlined above. The acronym "SDL"-Substitute, Delay or Leave-is used to collectively describe the three possible responses.The problem of retail stockouts is not trivial. A 1996 study estimated that 8.2% of items in supermarkets are out-of-stock in a typical afternoon.2 This is an improvement over the average of 12.2% obtained in a similar study in 1968.

Purpose The digital advances in modern industry are accelerating changes in the broad social, economic, political and business environments within which supply chain management (SCM) is practiced. Given this extraordinary contextual upheaval, the conduct of research to identify, define, understand and explain how the digital revolution will impact key SCM concepts is imperative. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a theoretically grounded Digitally Dominant Paradigm (DDP) framework that demonstrates how digital concepts and insights can be infused into existing elements of best-practice SCM, in order to help guide future research. Design/methodology/approach Middle-range theorizing is proposed as a means to explore the ways in which researchers can explain supply chain phenomena (i.e. build theory) in the age of digitalization. Findings An example of how a DDP framework can be applied to a well-entrenched logistics/supply chain concept is provided, and the authors conclude by identifying exemplary research propositions for future exploration. Originality/value The broad goal of the paper is to spark forward-looking supply chain scholarship based upon development of a DDP of SCM.

Studies of consumer response to stockouts typically capture intended behavior. After a stockout experience, consumers are asked what they intend to do. In contrast, this research measured both intended and actual behavior. Consumers were interviewed twice; once immediately following the stockout experience to gauge intended behavior and a second time 30 days later to ask what they had actually done in response to the stockout. Accordingly, the goals of this research are to (1) compare consumer actual and intended behavior in response to stockouts and (2) examine product characteristics, consumer characteristics and situational variables that may explain the consumer's response. Key results suggest that indicated behavior is a good indicator of actual behavior in situations where the consumer intends to quit the search and a rather poor indicator when the consumer intends to delay the search. Finally, of the several product characteristics, consumer characteristics and situational variables examined, store loyalty, pre‐visit agenda and product uniqueness have shown most promise to help managers understand consumer actual and intended response to stockouts.