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Marketers make an effort to affect consumers through scarcity marketing thus shaping the perception of scarcity and creating desirability for consumers. To expand the scarcity-expensiveness-desirability model and to enhance insights for practical applications, this study modifies the causal relationship among two types of scarcity, three types of expansiveness and desirability.

This study surveyed 400 Taipei city residents who had purchase experience with luxury brands products in Taiwan. The study employed structural equation modeling as empirical analysis.

The empirical results show that limited-quantity scarcity main influences perceived social status and then affects desirability. The second path is that limited-quantity scarcity influences perceived uniqueness and then affects desirability. Therefore, perceived social status and perceived uniqueness dominate the majority of effects on desirability because they are the recognition of the individual compared to others, especially when applied to luxury goods.

Because limited-quantity scarcity has a greater impact on desirability than limited-time scarcity in the empirical results, marketers can adopt limited-quantity scarcity messages that are better than limited-time scarcity, to increase consumers’ desire to purchase luxury goods.

The first novelty of this study is dividing scarcity marketing into limited-quantity and limited-time scarcity in the scarcity-expensiveness-desirability model. This study extends expensiveness in the scarcity-expensiveness-desirability model with a complete demonstration, that is, perceived social status, perceived uniqueness and perceived value, which is the second novelty of this study.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how referral reward programs (RRPs) with scarcity messages influence consumer’ recommendation behavioral intentions about a bank credit card.

In total, 1,599 consumers are accessed through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk worker panel. The authors use general linear models, analysis of variance and analysis of covariance to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results showed that offering RRPs with scarcity messages increases a consumer’s behavioral intentions to recommend. The limited-quantity message in RRPs has the highest positive impact on consumers’ behavioral intentions.

No prior studies have addressed the relationship between referral rewards and scarcity messages in the bank credit card context. The study contributes to the understanding of the effectiveness of RRPs with scarcity message in improving consumer’s referral.

This paper aims to examine how the temporal distance can influence the effect of the scarcity message. To demonstrate this effect, the authors use the limited-quantity flash sales and compare two types of mixed promotion method comprising discount rate and limited quantity.

The results of the experiment reveal that consumers in the temporally distant condition have a relatively high-level construal of the limited-quantity flash sales and are more likely to value desirability (discount rate) over feasibility (limited quantity).

When the expected value is identical, consumers prefer limited-quantity flash sales with smaller limited quantity but higher discount rates. However, consumers in the temporally near condition have a relatively low-level construal of the limited-quantity flash sales and are more likely to value feasibility (limited quantity) over desirability (discount rate).

When the expected value is identical, consumers prefer limited-quantity flash sales with lower discount rates but larger limited quantity.

This study aims to examine whether, and how, perceived product scarcity strengthens the attitude–behavior relation in the case of sustainable luxury products.

Three online studies were conducted to examine the moderating role of perceived product scarcity on the attitude–willingness to pay (WTP) relationship in the case of sustainable luxury products. A preliminary study (n = 208) examined the existence of an attitude–WTP gap toward a sustainable luxury product (i.e. a bag). Study 1 (n = 171) investigated the moderating effect of perceived scarcity induced by a limited quantity message on the relationship between consumer attitude and the WTP for a sustainable luxury product (i.e. a pair of shoes). Study 2 (n = 558) replicated these findings using a different product category (i.e. a wallet) while controlling for demographic variables and examined the moderating role of consumer characteristics on the scarcity effect.

Consumers’ perceived scarcity for sustainable luxury products positively moderated the relationship between product attitudes and their WTP for the products. The moderating effect of perceived scarcity was significant for consumers regardless of their tendency toward socially responsible consumption and their preference for product innovativeness. Meanwhile, the scarcity effect was influenced by the consumers’ attitude toward the brand of sustainable products.

This research provides empirical evidence for marketers with clear managerial implications concerning how to immediately promote consumers’ acceptance of sustainable luxury products.

This study is the first to examine the role of scarcity strategy on strengthening the attitude–behavior relation for sustainable luxury products.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of store messiness and human crowding on shoppers' competitive behaviours, in-store hoarding and in-store hiding, through the mediating effect of perceived scarcity and perceived competition.

2 (store messiness: messy × tidy) × 2 (human crowding: high × low) between-subject factorial experiment was conducted online to manipulate retail store atmospheric factors. A total of 154 responses were collected through Amazon MTurk. The hypotheses were analysed using ANOVA and PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) procedure.

Results suggest that store messiness and human crowding within a fast-fashion store lead to perception of scarcity and competition that further affects competitive behaviours. When consumers experience store messiness, they are likely to hide merchandise in store, thus making it inaccessible for other consumers. Further, when they experience human crowding in the store, they feel that the products will be gone immediately so they have a tendency to hoard them.

This study examined the effects of scarcity perception by studying the case of fast-fashion retailers; generalizability needs to be established across different contexts.

Retailers by manipulating human crowding and store messiness can create a perception of scarcity in their stores, thus enhancing sales. However, they should also pay attention to deviant behaviours such as in-store hoarding and in-store hiding as these behaviours may decrease the store sales.

This research contributed to the retailing literature by finding a significant relationship between human crowding, store messiness and competitive behaviours through perceived scarcity and competition.

First, this paper aims to investigate the impact of impulsiveness on two types of shopping value (e.g. utilitarian and hedonic value) and the urge to buy restaurant products and services impulsively in social commerce environments. Second, the study assesses the impact of situational factors (e.g. scarcity and serendipity) on individuals’ shopping values.

Data were collected from 332 participants. By using PLS-graph 3.0, structural equation modeling was conducted. Furthermore, a hierarchical regression model was conducted for testing the mediating and moderating effects.

The results indicate that impulsiveness is a strong predictor for two types of shopping value (hedonic and utilitarian) and the urge to buy impulsively. While the hedonic shopping value was found to have a significant influence on the urge to buy impulsively, utilitarian value was not. Scarcity was moderator in the relationships between impulsiveness and both types of shopping value, whereas serendipity was found to moderate only the relationship between impulsiveness and the utilitarian shopping value.

The findings show that the marketing managers and application developers of social commerce should place their focus on scarcity and serendipity to stimulate consumers in having a hedonic shopping value so to have an urge to buy impulsively.

First, although most previous studies focused on only rational or planned consumption, this study focused on irrational and unplanned consumption as well. Second, the authors assessed the role of situational factors (scarcity and serendipity) occurring in social commerce and asserted that these factors moderate the relationship between consumers’ shopping values and their urge to buy impulsively.

As a frequently observed business phenomenon, the use of product scarcity to improve a product’s market performance has received increasing attention from both academics and practitioners. The resulting literature has covered a wide variety of issues based on various theories, using different research methods, in a diverse range of settings. However, this diversity also makes it difficult to grasp the core themes and findings, and to see the outstanding knowledge gaps. This paper aims to review previous studies on the use of product scarcity in marketing and identifies new directions for future research.

A systematic review was conducted to identify and analyse 66 research papers published in business and management journals between 1970 and 2017.

The authors examined the underlying theories of scarcity-based marketing, and developed a conceptual framework that describes the key factors of product scarcity and how they influence both consumers and the market. They also highlighted some key achievements in modelling the processes involved in using product scarcity in marketing.

This analysis of the identified papers suggests that there are substantial gaps in our knowledge of this field, which opens up new paths for future research. For future research, the authors identified three directions aimed at: addressing the practical needs of firms in understanding product scarcity; guiding the implementation of scarcity-based strategies; and measuring, monitoring and predicting the level of product scarcity and its impacts during implementation.

Marketing practitioners consider packaging as a promising marketing tool, but current academic research covers mostly regular packages. Filling this gap, this paper aims to analyze why and how companies use limited edition packaging (LEP), which is defined as a scarcity product tactic, using the package exclusively to create a limited offer.

This study adopted a grounded theory methodology and used a qualitative collective case study design by analyzing 175 LEP launches in the beverage sector between 2000 and 2019.

The empirical-based conceptualization of LEP tactics provided here describes the crucial marketing dimensions in which strategic decisions are made regarding objective of release, implementation and related marketing mix decisions. Results show that LEP tactics serve parallel brands, sales and product strategy-related goals; LEPs are characterized by intensity, theme (occasion) and design characteristics, such as typicality, and marketers use various marketing mix combinations (i.e., pricing, distribution and advertising) in relation to the LEP offer.

To the best of author’s knowledge, it is the first conceptualization of this special type of scarcity tactic. This study also assists academics by providing an agenda for future research in this domain.

Experiential stores offer potential for emotional brand-consumer connections and word-of-mouth (WoM) generation. Past research links the lifecycle of such stores with perceived novelty, a defining characteristic that has not received sufficient recognition. Scarce products are identified as a promising strategy to enhance novelty perceptions. Additionally, the authors differentiate between electronic and interpersonal WoM, and consider need for uniqueness (NFU) as a relevant personality variable.

This study encompasses three experiments that seek to shed light on suggested relationships. The first two experiments explore the interplay between scarcity, perceived novelty, and WoM. Moving forward, the third study delves deeper into the matter, scrutinizing the conditions under which scarce products manifest their utility in experiential stores.

The findings indicate that incorporating scarce products can rejuvenate the novelty aspect of experiential stores and promote positive WoM outcomes. Additionally, including NFU as a personality variable presents a communication dilemma, as high NFU individuals tend to engage more in electronic WoM but less in interpersonal WoM. However, this relationship is contingent on circumstances, with high NFU individuals showing a greater inclination towards interpersonal WoM when the probability of being imitated is low.

This study offers practical guidance for brand managers aiming to sustain the appeal and success of their experiential stores, as well as for commercial real estate managers seeking to revitalize vacant spaces in the post-COVID-19 era.

This pioneering study investigates the role of perceived novelty and scarce products in experiential stores, aiming to identify optimal conditions for favorable consumer responses. It also contributes to research on the forward spillover effect and underscores the importance of interpersonal proximity in WoM investigations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perception of luxuriousness as a novel underlying mechanism of the shelf-based scarcity effect by using both psychophysiological measures (Study 1) and self-reported measures (Study 2).

Two within-subject experimental designs were conducted to examine the effects of low, medium and high stock depletion levels (i.e. shelf-based scarcity) on consumer responses. In Study 1, facial expression analysis was used to examine consumers’ liking, and left frontal asymmetry brainwaves were used to examine consumers’ approach motivation as a proxy for purchase intention. Study 2 extended the findings with self-reported measures.

In Study 1, perceived product luxuriousness was found to underlie the shelf-based scarcity effect on facial expressions and left frontal asymmetry brainwaves after controlling for other previously proposed mediators (i.e. product popularity and quality). The shelf-based scarcity effect is only observed between low vs high stock levels, whereas moderate stock level depletion does not evoke the shelf-based scarcity effect. Study 2 used self-reported measures to replicate the effect of shelf-based scarcity on product luxuriousness. However, the findings demonstrated the limitation of self-reported measures to identify a significant spill-over effect of perceived luxuriousness to attitude.

Extending previous literature that relied heavily on self-reported measures, the current research used psychophysiological methods to uncover perceived luxuriousness as a novel underlying mechanism for the shelf-based scarcity effect. Thus, the findings are not only the first to provide psychophysiological evidence of the shelf-based scarcity effect but also to validate perceived luxuriousness as an underlying mechanism of the shelf-based scarcity effect.

The current findings suggest that the shelf-based scarcity effect is only evoked by high (instead of moderate) levels of stock depletion. The study also shows that shelf-based scarcity does not necessarily signal product popularity, but instead it may serve as a cue of product luxuriousness. Adding to other manipulations of retail spaces that elicit luxury perception (e.g. artwork, sensory delight and themed store atmospherics), this implies that businesses are able to use shelf-based scarcity as a cue to enhance or complement the luxury image or the perception of the brand or product.

The current research is the first study to use psychophysiological techniques to examine perceived luxuriousness as an underlying mechanism of shelf-based scarcity. It also demonstrates that self-report measures are not sensitive to such an effect in comparison to psychophysiological techniques, explaining why perceived luxuriousness has not been previously found to be an underlying mechanism of shelf-based scarcity.