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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.

A number of types of scarcity messages are often used in Internet advertisements, but all these types have not been directly compared to each other.

College students (n = 789) were surveyed about five advertising choices for luxury skin-care products consisting of scarcity messages of high-demand, low-stock, limited-time, countdown timer and regular advertising without any scarcity message. Outcomes were product classification attitudes of functional and symbolic and psychological attitudes of persuasion knowledge and advertising skepticism.

The study found that high-demand message had greater functional attitudes and greater symbolic attitudes than regular advertising. Limited-time message had greater symbolic attitudes than regular advertising. High-demand message had lower advertising skepticism attitudes than regular advertising.

The authors recommend that when a luxury skin-care product is in high demand, that marketers should use high-demand messages in their advertising. Marketers of luxury skin-care products may also benefit from using limited-time message advertisements.

This is the first study to directly compare the scarcity message advertising types of high-demand, low-stock, limited-time, countdown timer with regular advertising without any scarcity message.

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.

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.

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 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.

With the advent of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to analyse the scenario of panic buying (PB) behaviour of the customers which was evident in the first wave. This paper aims to examine the PB scenario as well as the moderating effect of past buying experience (PBE) on PB in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study is based on the theories of stimulus–organism–response model and the competitive arousal model. Based on these theories, this paper investigates how panic situation created by external stimuli such as perceived scarcity (PS), perceived risk (PR), news in media (NM) and social learning affect the perceived arousal (PA) among people which in turn influence the PB behaviour of customers. Data were collected from 253 customers from different parts of India. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the moderating effect of PBE on the PB in the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

The results indicate that the PS, PR and NM continue to be strong predictors of a buyer for PA. However, the PB is not reinforced by the moderation effect of PBE.

This paper investigates the consumers’ PB behaviours in the wake of third wave of COVID-19 pandemic which add to the existing literature of COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this study also examines how previous buying experience can moderate the PB behaviour of the customers in subsequent phases of COVID-19 pandemic. This supports the potential effectiveness of self-regulation as an intervention strategy for reducing PB behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study emphasises the impact of external stimuli like PS, PR and media coverage on PB behaviour, marketers and policymakers should manage to avoid triggers. Although PBE may not moderate PB during a pandemic, it can play a significant role in future buying behaviour. Anticipating potential triggers and designing effective marketing strategies that cater to customers' needs can help manage PB behaviour during disasters or pandemics. In addition, promoting conscious consumption awareness and self-regulation practices among customers can help manage PB behaviour, benefit the environment and society and make customers more responsible buyers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study examines the PB behaviour of customers during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic for the first time. This study also investigates the moderating effect of PBE on the PB behaviour of customers during a pandemic which is new and significant that extends the literature on PB behaviour during a pandemic.

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.

This paper studies the impact of social distancing causing crises (SDCC) such as pandemics in its early stages on e-tailers demand and supply side operations and provides a conceptual framework for adaptation.

A grounded theory-based approach has been used, wherein journal papers and news articles are the key data sources. Standard qualitative methodology, including open, axial and selective coding has been followed.

The study provides second order themes derived from first-order categories, the theoretical dimensions and their interrelationships on how e-tailers need to adapt to variations in online buying behaviour, manage manpower shortage and daily necessities inventory shortage, during SDCC. Panic buying emerges as a key disrupting factor as it has multiple repercussions on demand and supply side operations of e-tailers.

Exploratory qualitative research such as this is helpful in early development of a research stream and paves the way for future quantitative studies.

This study makes a valuable contribution on e-tailers adaptation to SDCC with significant managerial implications. There are social, economic and policy implications too. For academicians, this study provides a conceptual framework and serves as a springboard for future research.

The study is unique as perhaps it is one of the first to study e-tailers adaptation to SDCC. It contributes to a body of the literature which is currently scarce but expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the destructive effects of stretch goals on employees’ work–family conflict (WFC). Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examines the mediating role of resource scarcity. By integrating the paradox theory with the COR theory, this study explores the moderating role of employees’ paradox mind-set.

Two-wave data were collected from a sample of MBA students in Northwestern China (N = 294). PROCESS was used to assess a moderated mediation model.

This study found a positive relationship between stretch goals and WFC, and resource scarcity mediated this relationship. For employees with a high paradox mind-set, the relationship between resource scarcity and WFC was weak; and the indirect effect of stretch goals on WFC via resource scarcity was weak.

Organizations should provide enough resources to employees when using stretch goals. Human resource managers could recruit candidates with high paradox mind-set and foster employees’ paradox mind-set through training.

This study makes contributions to the literature on stretch goals by examining the negative spillover effect of stretch goals on the family domain and exploring the mediating mechanism. This study also extends the paradox theory by using it at micro level to address questions on WFC.