Retailer- vs. Vendor-managed inventory in the presence of consumer response to retail stockouts
研究了在两种可替代产品且消费者对零售缺货有反应的情况下，供应商管理库存（VMI）与零售商管理库存（RMI）对零售商和制造商绩效的影响，调和了现有研究的矛盾结论。
Mishra and Raghunathan (2004) and Kim (2008) conducted a study on the same model but reached conflicting results on under what circumstances vendor-managed inventory (VMI) benefits the retailer as opposed to retailer-managed inventory (RMI) in a setting where two products are partially substitutable. However, we note that their conflicting results were due to different assumptions about unmet demand after product substitution, which is influenced by consumers response to retail stockouts. This paper then extends their studies by incorporating consumer response to retail stockouts and re-examining the impacts of VMI on the retailer’s performance as well as on each manufacturer’s. Therefore, this paper reconciles the conflicts in the existing scholarly work and provides a more complete understanding of when each supply chain member is better off with VMI than RMI in a two-product setting. Additionally, the incorporation of consumer response to retail stockouts sheds light on how product substitution and consumers’ store loyalty affect the value of VMI to each supply chain member.