Effects Of Consumer Self-concept Congruity On Brand-switching Intention In Out-of-stock Context

In recent years,although retailers through a variety of technologies and means to enhance the level of supply chain management,to increase the inventory tracking system,but the phenomenon of out of stock(oos)is still their biggest problem.A survey of Mc Kinsey&Company in 2006 showed that the average stockpile rate of Chinese retailers was 10%,much higher than the 7%level of international counterparts;the annual sales of the best-selling goods failed to supplement the sales of up to 83 billion yuan(Zhao Li,2009).Oos will not only bring huge economic losses to retailers,but also weaken the consumer's sense of retailers and out of stock brands(Schary and Christopher,1979).However,the retail market is difficult to avoid the phenomenon of oos,so effective prevention and management of the phenomenon of oos is essential for retailers.What happens to consumers in the face of oos?Why did they react like that?How to prevent and reduce the adverse reaction of consumers,thereby reducing the loss of profits,should cause the brand operators attention.In the past,scholars mainly studied the influencing factors of the oos response of consumers from the standpoint of product,brand,store,situation and consumer,and few scholars have studied the relationship between the two or more,so this article from the aspect of relationship between brand and consumer in other words,Self-concept Consistency,introducing the mediator variable Anticipated Action(Brand Switching)Regret to explore the relationship between Self-concept Consistency,Anticipated Action(Brand Switching)Regret,Brand Switching intention and the role of temporal distance.The theoretical contribution of this paper is mainly as follows:First,different from the previous study of the factors that affect the oos response of consumers from a single perspective,this paper introduces the concept of Self-concept Consistency from the perspective of the relationship between consumers and brands Second,this paper explores the factors that affect Brand Switching intention of consumers and the impact process in the oos situation.Thirdly,this paper discusses the remedial strategy of the brand,The Temporal Distance of the consumer is introduced into the model,how the Remedial Strategies of the situational factors and the perception of the consumer affect the consumer's decision.In practice,this study will be a guide for the brand retails on the brand shaping process and practice after oos,and provide some guidance for the weakening of consumers' intention to convert their brands.The focus of this paper is in the oos the impact of Self-concept Consistency on Anticipated Action(Brand Switching)Regret and consumers Brand Switching intention,and to explore the mediation role of Anticipated Action(Brand Switching)Regret between Self-concept Consistency and consumers Brand Switching intention,as well as the regulating effect of Remedial Strategies and Temporal Distance between Self-concept Consistency and Anticipated Action(Brand Switching)Regret.This paper adopts the scene simulation experiment method,taking the student group as the experimental object.I analyzed of the 395 valid samples by SPSS20.0,and the main conclusions are as follows:(1)In the oos,Self-concept Consistency has a significant impact on Brand Switching intention.(2)Anticipated Action(Brand Switching)Regret plays a role of intermediary between Self-concept Consistency and Brand Switching intention(3)Remedial Strategies play a regulatory role in the relationship between Self-concept Consistency and Anticipated Action(Brand Switching)Regret.(4)Temporal Distance plays a regulatory role in the relationship between Self-concept Consistency and Anticipated Action(Brand Switching)Regret.(5)The effect of Self-concept Consistency to Anticipated Action(Brand Switching)Regret is adjusted by the remediation strategy and Temporal Distance.Based on the above conclusions,there are four suggestions for retailers to deal with the shortage:Brand retails can survey the common part of the self-concept of the target consumer population before build and publicize the brand image so that the target consumer groups perceive themselves and the brand have a high match degree,which can significantly increasing the Anticipated Brand Switching Regret and reducing the Intention of Brand Switching.Second,brand retails should strengthen inventory management or try their best to make consumers' perceived product arrival time is shorter through other marketing tools.Third,brand retails should use economic Remedial Strategies as far as possible in oos to reduce the Intention of Switching Brands,but they also should balance the pay and benefits.Fourth,paying attention to stimulation and management the consumers' anticipation of regret mood.This article also needs to be improved from the following four aspects:First,looking for new explanatory variables to expand the field of this research.Second,expanding the dimensions of the variable,or focusing on one dimension.Third,expanding the sample size so that the conclusion is more universal significance.Fourth,Choosing right stimulus.Fifth,studying oos of online shopping,so that the research following the reality closely.