This paper studies the role of product availability in attracting consumer demand. We start with a newsvendor model, but additionally assume that stockouts are costly to consumers. The seller sets an observable price and an unobservable stocking quantity. Consumers anticipate the likelihood of...

Game theoretic models require strong informational assumptions that may not hold in operations applications. In such settings, how do uninformed players behave? We take a first step towards addressing this question by conducting a controlled human subject experiment. We focus on a simple...

Inventory availability has been widely recognized as an important leverage to enhance the competitive edge of a firm. We study the competition between two retailers who compete on both price and inventory availability. Competition on inventory availability may have important implications on...