The Making of a “Hot Product”: A Signaling Explanation of Marketers’ Scarcity Strategy

Axel Stock
Axel Stock
[email protected]
Marketing Department, College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816
Search for more papers by this author
,
Subramanian Balachander
Subramanian Balachander
[email protected]
Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907
Search for more papers by this author

Axel Stock

[email protected]

Marketing Department, College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida 32816

Search for more papers by this author

Subramanian Balachander

[email protected]

Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907

Search for more papers by this author

Published Online:1 Aug 2005https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1050.0381

Supplemental Material

mnsc.1050.0381-sm-stock_balanchanger_hotproduct.pdf (212 KB)

Cited by
- Turning the tide on panic buying: how resale opportunities reduce product demand
  18 May 2026 | Marketing Letters, Vol. 37, No. 1
- Competing With Copycats in Reward‐Based Crowdfunding
  16 October 2025 | Naval Research Logistics (NRL), Vol. 73, No. 4
- Implementing Target‐Based Deferred Payments in Crowdfunding: A Signaling Perspective
  29 April 2026 | Naval Research Logistics (NRL), Vol. 81
- Understanding Sport Product Collaborations Through the Lens of Limited Editions
  21 April 2026 | Sport Marketing Quarterly, Vol. 24
- Will I regret not buying? Unpacking the dual pathways of anticipated regret that influence online impulsive buying
  Information & Management, Vol. 63, No. 3
- Digital new products in virtual worlds – How do limited-time offers influence consumers’ adoption behavior?
  Journal of Business Research, Vol. 207
- Use Value/Exchange Value Conflict and Adjustment Strategies among Millennial and Generation Z Consumers in Fashion Resale Markets : A Grounded Theory Approach
  Journal of the Korean Society of Costume, Vol. 76, No. 1
- Quality Signaling in Rewards-Based Crowdfunding: The Role of Deferred Payments
  Jiancheng Lyu,
  Xiaobei Shen,
  Yuqian Zhou,
  Xiangyin Kong
  19 February 2026 | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Vol. 0, No. 0
- Disclosing Low Product Availability: An Online Platform’s Strategy for Mitigating Stockout Risk
  Benjamin Knight,
  Dmitry Mitrofanov
  23 June 2025 | Management Science, Vol. 72, No. 2
- Empirical analysis of scarcity marketing: examining the dynamic spillover effects between limited-time and regular products
  3 October 2025 | Cogent Business & Management, Vol. 12, No. 1
- The Optimal Cooperation Model of a New Energy Vehicle Supply Chain With Asymmetric Quality Information
  6 September 2025 | Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 46, No. 8
- Signaling cost with price guarantee window under two logistics modes: Self-supporting vs. third-party logistics
  Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Vol. 203
- Intertemporal Pricing with Resellers: An Empirical Study of Product Drops
  Dayton Steele,
  Seyed Morteza Emadi,
  Saravanan Kesavan
  6 December 2024 | Management Science, Vol. 71, No. 9
- The value of distinctiveness: Product uniqueness in crypto marketing
  International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 42, No. 3
- Retailer hoarding in emergency situations: A game-theoretic analysis
  Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Vol. 200
- A Blessing or a Curse: The Impact of Sampling in Crowdfunding Market
  13 April 2025 | Production and Operations Management, Vol. 34, No. 7
- The paradox of product scarcity: Catalyzing the speed of innovation diffusion
  13 November 2024 | Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 53, No. 3
- Artificial scarcity design heuristics for digital collecting: Evidence from the non-fungible token market
  Information & Management, Vol. 62, No. 3
- Signaling quality via demand lockout
  28 October 2024 | Quantitative Marketing and Economics, Vol. 23, No. 1
- Enhanced digital embeddedness and bubble mitigation in NFT marketplaces: The impact of rarity rank on user trading behavior
  Decision Support Systems, Vol. 190
- Online media and fuel panic buying: unraveling causality under fixed prices in Hungary
  6 January 2025 | Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Vol. 6
- Examining the customer experience in the metaverse retail revolution
  Journal of Business Research, Vol. 186
- Formation Mechanism and Legal Regulation Paths of Irrational Consumption Behavior in Live Streaming E-Commerce
  E-Commerce Letters, Vol. 14, No. 05
- The mediation effect of the urge to buy impulsively on grocery online impulse buying decisions
  26 February 2024 | Cogent Business & Management, Vol. 11, No. 1
- Behavioral Retail Operations: Tactics to Win Customers
  11 November 2024 | Foundations and Trends® in Technology, Information and Operations Management, Vol. 18, No. 3-4
- Scarcity and market design: How effective matching can promote the peer-to-peer sharing economy
  Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 208
- Quality Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Taste Projection in Markets with Observational Learning
  American Economic Review, Vol. 114, No. 11
- Examining the mediating role of consumer desire for luxury: Can perceived sustainability and natural rarity evoke willingness to pay more?
  11 April 2024 | Journal of International Consumer Marketing, Vol. 36, No. 4
- When ownership and copyright are separated: Economics of non-fungible token marketplaces with secondary markets
  Decision Support Systems, Vol. 183
- Can Merchants Benefit from Entry by (Amazon-Like) Platform if Multiagent Prices Signal Quality?
  Ye Qiu,
  Ram C. Rao
  8 December 2023 | Marketing Science, Vol. 43, No. 4
- Persuading Skeptics and Fans in the Presence of Additional Information
  21 March 2024 | Production and Operations Management, Vol. 33, No. 5
- Style and quality: Aesthetic innovation strategy under weak appropriability
  Research Policy, Vol. 53, No. 3
- Signaling quality through price guarantee window for technology-related products
  European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 313, No. 2
- Scarcity in today´s consumer markets: scoping the research landscape by author keywords
  29 September 2022 | Management Review Quarterly, Vol. 74, No. 1
- Leaving the (fund) gate ajar: Investor protection or marketing ploy?
  Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Vol. 83
- Limited Edition Products: A Literature Review and Future Research Agenda
  31 December 2023
- Look for the signature: Using personal signatures as extrinsic cues promotes identity-congruent behavior
  Journal of Business Research, Vol. 170
- Optimal pricing strategy of an on-demand platform with cross-regional passengers
  Omega, Vol. 122
- Asu Om Review Vol I
  1 January 2024 | SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 6
- Impact of Inventory Levels and Product Variety on Consumers’ Perceptions of Brands
  1 January 2024 | SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 31
- Activities in Cyber Behavior
- Online Reviews and Consumer Decisions
- An empirical study of scarcity marketing strategies: Limited-time products with umbrella branding in the beer market
  25 October 2022 | Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 51, No. 6
- Competitive crowdfunding under asymmetric quality information
  14 February 2021 | Annals of Operations Research, Vol. 329, No. 1-2
- The role of scarcity-inducing post-stockout disclosures on consumer response to stockouts
  8 August 2023 | International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 53, No. 9
- Restricting Speculative Reselling: When “How Much” Is the Question
  Dmitri Kuksov,
  Chenxi Liao
  16 August 2022 | Marketing Science, Vol. 42, No. 2
- Disclosing Product Availability in Online Retail
  Eduard Calvo,
  Ruomeng Cui,
  Laura Wagner
  1 October 2020 | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Vol. 25, No. 2
- Quality Signaling Through Crowdfunding Pricing
  Ehsan Bolandifar,
  Zhong Chen,
  Panos Kouvelis,
  Weihua Zhou
  23 January 2023 | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Vol. 25, No. 2
- Asymmetric Information of Product Authenticity on C2C E-Commerce Platforms: How Can Inspection Services Help?
  Linqiu Li,
  Xin Fang,
  Yun Fong Lim
  27 January 2023 | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Vol. 25, No. 2
- Advertising and pricing decisions for signaling crowdfunding product’s quality
  Computers & Industrial Engineering, Vol. 176
- Information design through scarcity and social learning
  Journal of Economic Theory, Vol. 207
- Crowdfunding for Innovation: Information Asymmetry and Deferred Payments
  1 January 2023 | SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 14
- The Role of Royalty Fee in NFT Markets
  1 January 2023 | SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 84
- The Value of Difference: Uniqueness in Crypto Marketing
  1 January 2023 | SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 42
- Scarcity tactics in marketing: A meta-analysis of product scarcity effects on consumer purchase intentions
  Journal of Retailing, Vol. 98, No. 4
- The Profitability of Purchase Limits During Shortages
  27 July 2022 | Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 59, No. 6
- Need for uniqueness moderates the effectiveness of different types of scarcity appeals
  25 November 2022 | Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 13
- Quality signaling strategies of experience goods in online–offline channel integration
  18 February 2022 | Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 43, No. 7
- To Share or Not to Share? The Optimal Technology Investment in a Virtual Product Supply Chain
  9 October 2022 | Sustainability, Vol. 14, No. 19
- Measuring the impact of rarity on price: evidence from NBA Top Shot
  14 July 2022 | Marketing Letters, Vol. 33, No. 3
- Signaling Quality with Return Insurance: Theory and Empirical Evidence
  Chong Zhang,
  Man Yu,
  Jian Chen
  8 December 2021 | Management Science, Vol. 68, No. 8
- Seeing is believing? Data mining to create a choice-based conjoint approach for restaurant mobile marketing
  International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 104
- Word-of-Mouth Communication, Repeated Purchase and Hunger Marketing
  China Journal of Economics, Vol. 9, No. 2
- Identifying a New Social Intervention Model of Panic Buying Under Sudden Epidemic
  11 March 2022 | Frontiers in Public Health, Vol. 10
- Examining the influences of perceived exclusivity and perceived rarity on consumers' perception of luxury
  30 June 2021 | Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, Vol. 26, No. 2
- Managing Reference‐Group Effects in Sequential Product Upgrades
  1 February 2022 | Production and Operations Management, Vol. 31, No. 2
- Antecedents and consequences of panic buying: The case of COVID‐19
  27 January 2021 | International Journal of Consumer Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1
- Understanding the Value of Feature Information Sharing
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 55
- Examining the Mediating Role of Consumer Desire for Luxury Can Perceived Sustainability and Natural Rarity Evoke Willingness to Pay More?
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 66
- Disclosing Low Product Availability: An Online Retailer's Strategy for Mitigating Stockout Risk
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 57
- Persuading Skeptics and Fans: Information Design for New Experience Goods
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 14
- When does online review matter to consumers? The effect of product quality information cues
  13 January 2020 | Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 21, No. 4
- Underpromise and overdeliver? - Online product reviews and firm pricing
  International Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol. 79
- Social selling cues: The dynamics of posting numbers viewed and bought on customers' purchase intentions
  International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 38, No. 4
- Limited‐edition advertising does not always work for luxury brands: The influence of consumption contexts
  15 February 2021 | Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Vol. 20, No. 5
- Empty the Shopping Cart? The Effect of Shopping Cart Item Sorting on Online Shopping Cart Abandonment Behavior
  7 July 2021 | Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 16, No. 6
- Selling goods on e-commerce platforms: The impact of scarcity messages
  Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Vol. 47
- Operations strategies with snobbish and strategic consumers
  26 October 2020 | Naval Research Logistics (NRL), Vol. 68, No. 3
- The effect of subscription-based direct-to-consumer channel additions on firm value
  Journal of Business Research, Vol. 123
- Outlet selectivity: how and when does it work?
  4 July 2020 | Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 39, No. 1
- Shelf-based scarcity as a cue of luxuriousness: an application of psychophysiology
  25 September 2020 | European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 55, No. 2
- When Consumers Learn, Money Burns: Signaling Quality via Advertising with Observational Learning and Word of Mouth
  Yogesh V. Joshi,
  Andres Musalem
  6 October 2020 | Marketing Science, Vol. 40, No. 1
- Signaling to the Crowd: Private Quality Information and Rewards-Based Crowdfunding
  Soudipta Chakraborty,
  Robert Swinney
  3 April 2020 | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Vol. 23, No. 1
- The impact of product characteristics of limited-edition shoes on perceived value, brand trust and purchase intention
  26 July 2021 | Cogent Business & Management, Vol. 8, No. 1
- Intertemporal Pricing with Resellers: An Empirical Study of Product Drops
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 66
- Who Beneﬁts from Platform Entry if Multi-Agent Prices Signal Product Quality?
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 20
- Leaving the (fund) gate ajar: investor protection or marketing ploy?
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 116
- Measuring the Impact of Rarity on Price: Evidence from NBA Top Shot
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 55
- Optimal Bilateral Trade with Interdependent Values
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 84
- An Empirical Study of Scarcity Marketing Strategies: Limited-time Products with Umbrella Branding in Beer Market
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 54
- Behaviorally Informed Strategies for a National COVID-19 Vaccine Promotion Program
  14 December 2020 | JAMA, Vol. 68
- Scarcity Strategy in Crowdfunding: An Empirical Exploration of Reward Limits
  Lusi Yang,
  Zhiyi Wang,
  Jungpil Hahn
  9 October 2020 | Information Systems Research, Vol. 31, No. 4
- Newsvendor Decisions with Two-Sided Learning
  Yiangos Papanastasiou
  13 May 2020 | Management Science, Vol. 66, No. 11
- Responsible Sourcing under Asymmetric Information: Price Signaling versus Supplier Disclosure
  14 August 2020 | Decision Sciences, Vol. 51, No. 5
- Exclusivity as a Signal of Quality in a Market with Word-of-Mouth Communication
  19 August 2020 | Review of Marketing Science, Vol. 18, No. 1
- Pricing and introductory scarcity strategies based on consumers' response
  19 December 2019 | International Transactions in Operational Research, Vol. 27, No. 4
- Limited edition packaging: objectives, implementations and related marketing mix decisions of a scarcity product tactic
  Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 37, No. 6
- Effects of cue congruence and perceived cue authenticity in online group buying
  2 March 2020 | Internet Research, Vol. 30, No. 3
- Signaling Quality in the Presence of Observational Learning
  17 September 2019 | Review of Industrial Organization, Vol. 56, No. 3
- How to Launch a New Durable Good: A Signaling Rationale for Hunger Marketing
  International Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol. 70
- Converting Shelf-Based Scarcity into Innovation by Adopting Customer-Focused Innovation Approach
  19 March 2018 | Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Vol. 11, No. 1
- The use of product scarcity in marketing
  European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 54, No. 2
- Go in the Opposite Direction? The Impact of Unavailability on Crowdfunding Success
  31 January 2021
- Managing Reference-Group Effects in Sequential Product Upgrades
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 51
- Signaling Production Quality for Reward-based Crowdfunding under Competition
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 14
- Quality Signaling through Crowdfunding Pricing
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 24
- Infinite but Rare: Valuation and Pricing in Marketplaces for Blockchain-Based Virtual Items
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 14
- When and How to Leverage E-commerce Cart Targeting: The Relative and Moderated Effects of Scarcity and Price Incentives with a Two-Stage Field Experiment and Causal Forest Optimization
  Xueming Luo,
  Xianghua Lu,
  Jing Li
  16 August 2019 | Information Systems Research, Vol. 30, No. 4
- Large Online Product Catalog Space Indicates High Store Price: Understanding Customers’ Overgeneralization and Illogical Inference
  Yunhui Huang,
  Kai H. Lim,
  Zhijie Lin,
  Shunping Han
  29 August 2019 | Information Systems Research, Vol. 30, No. 3
- Operational Role of Retail Bundling and Its Implications in a Supply Chain
  1 August 2019 | Production and Operations Management, Vol. 28, No. 8
- Sponsored search advertising and dynamic pricing for perishable products under inventory-linked customer willingness to pay
  European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 276, No. 1
- Price discrimination and the emergence of secondary markets
  28 February 2019 | Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 40, No. 4
- Your Uber Is Arriving: Managing On-Demand Workers Through Surge Pricing, Forecast Communication, and Worker Incentives
  Harish Guda,
  Upender Subramanian
  12 February 2019 | Management Science, Vol. 65, No. 5
- Does Adding Inventory Increase Sales? Evidence of a Scarcity Effect in U.S. Automobile Dealerships
  Gérard P. Cachon,
  Santiago Gallino,
  Marcelo Olivares
  12 July 2018 | Management Science, Vol. 65, No. 4
- Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon
  Ruomeng Cui,
  Dennis J. Zhang,
  Achal Bassamboo
  18 April 2018 | Management Science, Vol. 65, No. 3
- Limited Editions für Marken
  12 June 2019
- Ant colony algorithm improvement of AGV path based on soft time window for waste tobacco recovery
- Retailer Dominance and Quality Variation: Observations and a Theoretical Explanation
  Journal of Retailing, Vol. 94, No. 4
- Sellouts, Beliefs, and Bandwagon Behavior
  The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, Vol. 19, No. 1
- Quality signaling via strikethrough prices
  International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 35, No. 3
- Explaining Bundle-Framing Effects with Signaling Theory
  Jihwan Moon,
  Steven M. Shugan
  18 July 2018 | Marketing Science, Vol. 37, No. 4
- Pricing When Customers Have Limited Attention
  Tamer Boyacı,
  Yalçın Akçay
  25 May 2017 | Management Science, Vol. 64, No. 7
- A two-period pricing model with hunger marketing strategy
  Journal of Modelling in Management, Vol. 13, No. 1
- The Mere Urgency Effect
  9 February 2018 | Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 46
- Design Similarity as a Tool for Sustainable New Luxury Product Adoption: The Role of Luxury Brand Knowledge and Product Ephemerality
  8 December 2017
- Merchant and Platform: Pricing Strategy and Product Entry
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 20
- The Value of Disclosing Product Availability on Retail Platforms
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 57
- Newsvendor Decisions with Two-Sided Learning
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 19
- The effectiveness of number of deals purchased in influencing consumers' response to daily deal promotions: A cue utilization approach
  Journal of Business Research, Vol. 79
- Demarketing Tobacco Products Strategy to Impact Customers for Social Change
  International Journal of Civic Engagement and Social Change, Vol. 4, No. 4
- Low prices cum selective distribution versus high prices: how best to signal quality?
  6 February 2017 | Applied Economics, Vol. 49, No. 44
- An empirical investigation of signaling in reward-based crowdfunding
  19 December 2016 | Electronic Commerce Research, Vol. 17, No. 3
- The effect of a limited-edition offer following brand dilution on consumer attitudes toward a luxury brand
  Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 38
- Managing Retail Shelf and Backroom Inventories When Demand Depends on the Shelf‐Stock Level
  1 September 2017 | Production and Operations Management, Vol. 26, No. 9
- Supply constraints and waitlists in new product diffusion
  14 April 2018 | System Dynamics Review, Vol. 33, No. 3-4
- When Price Discrimination Fails – A Principal Agent Problem with Social Influence
  22 September 2015 | Managerial and Decision Economics, Vol. 38, No. 2
- The role of design similarity in consumers’ evaluation of new green products: An investigation of luxury fashion brands
  Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 141
- Product Catalog Density of Online Stores: How Space Influences Store Price Perception and Consumer Preference
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 13
- Determination of price and warranty length under claim rate of customer
  8 March 2017
- Leveraging Experienced Consumers to Attract New Consumers: An Equilibrium Analysis of Displaying Deal Sales by Daily Deal Websites
  Upender Subramanian,
  Ram C. Rao
  3 March 2016 | Management Science, Vol. 62, No. 12
- Hotel's online booking segementation for heterogenous customers
- The Impact of Supplier Inventory Service Level on Retailer Demand
  Nathan Craig,
  Nicole DeHoratius,
  Ananth Raman
  29 August 2016 | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Vol. 18, No. 4
- The effect of social and ambient factors on impulse purchasing behavior in social commerce
  24 August 2016 | Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Vol. 26, No. 4
- Seller-induced scarcity and price-leadership
  The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 27, No. 2
- Stockout-Based Substitution and Inventory Planning in Textbook Retailing
  Joonkyum Lee,
  Vishal Gaur,
  Suresh Muthulingam,
  Gary F. Swisher
  12 October 2015 | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Vol. 18, No. 1
- Limitless Crowdfunding? The Effect of Scarcity Management
- Limited Editions für Marken
  31 August 2016
- Profits and perils in the antiques and collectibles market: the influence of product knowledge structures on dealer exchange outcomes
  2 July 2015 | The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, Vol. 26, No. 1
- Product Launches and Buying Frenzies: A Dynamic Perspective
  1 January 2016 | Production and Operations Management, Vol. 25, No. 1
- Pricing When Customers Have Limited Attention
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 59
- Target Mass or Class? Dynamic Reputation Management with Heterogeneous Consumption Externalities
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 51
- Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Field Evidence from Amazon
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 52
- Signaling to the Crowd: Private Quality Information and Rewards-Based Crowdfunding
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 84
- Scarcity Strategy in Crowdfunding: An Empirical Exploration of Reward Limit
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 27
- Scarcity Message Effects on Consumption Behavior: Limited Edition Product Considerations
  7 September 2015 | Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 32, No. 10
- Advance Selling: Effects of Interdependent Consumer Valuations and Seller’s Capacity
  Man Yu,
  Roman Kapuscinski,
  Hyun-Soo Ahn
  27 February 2015 | Management Science, Vol. 61, No. 9
- Pricing and inventory management during new product introduction when shortage creates hype
  29 April 2015 | Naval Research Logistics (NRL), Vol. 62, No. 4
- Determinants of Cat Choice and Outcomes for Adult Cats and Kittens Adopted from an Australian Animal Shelter
  29 April 2015 | Animals, Vol. 5, No. 2
- Rationing Capacity in Advance Selling to Signal Quality
  Man Yu,
  Hyun-Soo Ahn,
  Roman Kapuscinski
  16 June 2014 | Management Science, Vol. 61, No. 3
- Dynamic Pricing and Inventory Management Under Inventory-Dependent Demand
  Nan Yang,
  Renyu Zhang
  20 August 2014 | Operations Research, Vol. 62, No. 5
- When higher prices increase sales: How chronic and manipulated desires for conspicuousness and rarity moderate price's impact on choice of luxury brands
  Journal of Business Research, Vol. 67, No. 9
- Buying frenzies in durable-goods markets
  European Economic Review, Vol. 70
- Impeding the Juggernaut of Innovation Diffusion: A Production‐Constrained Model
  1 July 2014 | Production and Operations Management, Vol. 23, No. 7
- Strategic obfuscation of production capacities
  3 April 2014 | Naval Research Logistics (NRL), Vol. 61, No. 3
- Optimal Pricing, Production, and Inventory for New Product Diffusion Under Supply Constraints
  Wenjing Shen,
  Izak Duenyas,
  Roman Kapuscinski
  19 August 2013 | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Vol. 16, No. 1
- The Catch-22 of Responsible Luxury: Effects of Luxury Product Characteristics on Consumers’ Perception of Fit with Corporate Social Responsibility
  13 January 2013 | Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 119, No. 1
- Sellouts, Beliefs, and Bandwagon Behavior
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 51
- Salesforce Compensation with Inventory Considerations
  Tinglong Dai,
  Kinshuk Jerath
  16 September 2013 | Management Science, Vol. 59, No. 11
- The Influence of Scarcity Message Type and Message Framing on Impulse Buying Effect in Online Pice Discount Advertising: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Need for Cognitive Closure
  The Korean Journal of Consumer and Advertising Psychology, Vol. 14, No. 4
- The Effect of Consumer Persuasion Knowledge on Scarcity Appeal Persuasiveness
  Journal of Advertising, Vol. 42, No. 4
- The Influence of Disorganized Shelf Displays and Limited Product Quantity on Consumer Purchase
  1 July 2013 | Journal of Marketing, Vol. 77, No. 4
- (De)marketing to Manage Consumer Quality Inferences
  1 February 2013 | Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 50, No. 1
- Leveraging Quality Information in Stock-Outs
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 50
- Does Adding Inventory Increase Sales? Evidence of a Scarcity Effect in U.S. Automobile Dealerships
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 31
- Price Commitments with Strategic Consumers: Why it Can Be Optimal to Discount More Frequently ... Than Optimal
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 14
- Strategic Obfuscation of Production Capacities
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 57
- Selling to Conspicuous Consumers: Pricing, Production, and Sourcing Decisions
  Necati Tereyağoğlu,
  Senthil Veeraraghavan,
  30 July 2012 | Management Science, Vol. 58, No. 12
- The Moderate Effectiveness On Regulatory Focus And Prices Discounts Of Scarcity Messages
  Management & Information Systems Review, Vol. 31, No. 1
- Signaling by Price in a Congested Environment
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 57
- Pricing and Strategic Rationing When Selling to Snobbish Consumers
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 99
- Salesforce Compensation with Inventory Considerations
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 50
- Rationing Capacity in Advance Selling to Signal Quality
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 69
- Scarcity Messages
  Journal of Advertising, Vol. 40, No. 3
- Quality Control and Signaling Strategy in Supply Chain
  1 February 2011 | Key Engineering Materials, Vol. 467-469
- Strategic Demarketing
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 51
- The Impact of Supplier Reliability Tracking on Customer Demand: Model and Estimation Methodology
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 52
- Buying Frenzies in Durable-Goods Markets
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 58
- Are scarce products always more attractive? The interaction of different types of scarcity signals with products' suitability for conspicuous consumption
  International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 27, No. 3
- Can Hedonic Store Environments Help Retailers Overcome Low Store Accessibility?
  8 December 2014 | Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Vol. 18, No. 3
- Reference Groups and Product Line Decisions: An Experimental Investigation of Limited Editions and Product Proliferation
  Wilfred Amaldoss,
  Sanjay Jain,
  24 February 2010 | Management Science, Vol. 56, No. 4
- Optimal Pricing with Speculators and Strategic Consumers
  Xuanming Su,
  28 September 2009 | Management Science, Vol. 56, No. 1
- Feasting on Leftovers: Strategic Use of Shortages in Price Competition Among Differentiated Products
  Evan L. Porteus,
  Hyoduk Shin,
  Tunay I. Tunca,
  29 December 2009 | Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Vol. 12, No. 1
- An Empirical Analysis of Scarcity Strategies in the Automobile Industry
  Subramanian Balachander,
  Yan Liu,
  Axel Stock,
  27 July 2009 | Management Science, Vol. 55, No. 10
- Optimal Product Line Design When Consumers Exhibit Choice Set-Dependent Preferences
  A. Yeşim Orhun,
  12 January 2009 | Marketing Science, Vol. 28, No. 5
- Consequences of Value in Retail Markets
  Journal of Retailing, Vol. 85, No. 3
- When demand accelerates demand: Trailing the bandwagon
  23 February 2009 | Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 19, No. 3
- Price, Scarcity, and Consumer Willingness to Purchase Pirated Media Products
  1 April 2009 | Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Vol. 28, No. 1
- Limited Edition Products: When and When Not to Offer Them
  Subramanian Balachander,
  Axel Stock,
  1 March 2009 | Marketing Science, Vol. 28, No. 2
- Models of Herding Behavior in Operations Management
  29 May 2009
- Optimal Pricing with Speculators and Strategic Consumers
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 10
- Creating Sales with Stock-Outs
  SSRN Electronic Journal, Vol. 48
- Research Note—Trading Up: A Strategic Analysis of Reference Group Effects
  Wilfred Amaldoss,
  Sanjay Jain,
  1 September 2008 | Marketing Science, Vol. 27, No. 5
- Modeling collecting behavior: The role of set completion
  Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 3
- Prehistoric inter-archipelago trading of Polynesian tree snails leaves a conservation legacy
  11 September 2007 | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 274, No. 1627

Volume 51, Issue 8

August 2005

Pages 1165-1307

Article Information

Supplemental Material

Metrics

Information

Received:August 22, 2003
Published Online:August 01, 2005

Cite as

Axel Stock, Subramanian Balachander, (2005) The Making of a “Hot Product”: A Signaling Explanation of Marketers’ Scarcity Strategy. Management Science 51(8):1181-1192.

https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1050.0381

Keywords

PDF download

Available Issues

Available Issues

Available Issues

Available Issues

Available Issues

Available Issues

Available Issues

Available Issues

Available Issues

The Making of a “Hot Product”: A Signaling Explanation of Marketers’ Scarcity Strategy

Supplemental Material

Volume 51, Issue 8

Article Information

Supplemental Material

Metrics

Information

Cite as

Keywords

Sign Up for INFORMS Publications Updates and News