PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to increase our understanding of the causes for stockouts in retailing.Design/methodology/approachMixed methods study, using instore observations, interviews with key informants in consumer goods and retailing, and a field study of stockouts and their causes in multiple wholesale stores over two years.FindingsThe results indicate that the causes for stockouts are specific to retailer, store, category and item. Improvements to store operations and the coordination of store delivery and shelf replenishment are most effective in reducing stockouts. Manual audits of stockouts and their causes benefit instore execution and provide the level of detail necessary for management to prioritize areas of improvement.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research may investigate the operational and cost impact of incorporating demand seasonality in shelf replenishment that may lead to an improved coordination of replenishment and demand cycles.Practical implicationsA procedure is proposed to help store managers reduce stockouts well below the global average of 8.3 percent.Originality/valueThe paper extends the literature by providing a comprehensive set of itemized causes of retail stockouts and reflects implications for sales‐data driven research. It adds to the emergent research that applies service‐dominant logic to retail stockout research.
Supply chain management (SCM) has developed from an object of operational optimisation into a strategic weapon for distinction from competitors. Dynamically changing and strongly varying customer needs demand a differentiated SCM approach. Supply chain differentiation (SCD) plans and designs supply chains based on customer needs, as increasingly demanded by SCM researchers. Therefore, SCD offers a possibility to increase SCM effectiveness. While practitioners are highly interested in SCD, academia has widely neglected this research area and does not offer an integrated approach. This paper presents a framework for SCD that constitutes the first step in developing a holistic procedure for SCD. Based on a comprehensive literature review, a conceptual framework is derived that integrates relevant decision areas of intra-and inter-organisational SCM. By presenting five case studies, we offer further empirical results concerning SCD and validate the framework.
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