Understanding Consumer Reactions to Assortment Unavailability

SSI (H1). We expect that the brand equity level of the delisted brand will relate positively to CI
because we assume that consumers are more committed to high-equity than to low-equity brands.
A second brand characteristic is the type of delisted brand, for which we distinguish
between store and manufacturer brands (Dhar and Hoch 1997). In contrast with manufacturer
brands, store brands are distributed only in a particular retail chain, which means that if a store
brand is delisted, consumers cannot switch to a competing store to obtain the same store brand.
Several researchers also have suggested that store brands are associated with higher store loyalty
(Corstjens and Lal 2000; Steenkamp and Dekimpe 1997), though other researchers argue that
heavy users of store brands are loyal to store brands in general, not necessarily to the store brand
of a particular retailer (Ailawadi and Harlam 2004). Because consensus does not exist for this
point, we do not formulate a hypothesis about the relationship between the type of brand and SSI
and CI.
H6: The brand equity level of the delisted brand will be positively related to (a) SSI and (b) CI.
3.8.2 Product category–related antecedents
The first product category variable is the type of product: utilitarian or hedonic (Batra and Ahtola
1991). Hedonic products, such as ice cream and salty snacks, provide more experiential
consumption (i.e., fun, pleasure, excitement), whereas utilitarian products, such as detergents and
toilet paper, provide primarily instrumental and functional benefits (Dhar and Wertenbroch 2000;
Hirschman and Holbrook 1982). The different nature of utilitarian and hedonic products may
affect the buying process, in that the buying process of utilitarian products may be driven mainly
by rational buying motives, whereas that of hedonic products includes emotional motives as
well. Because of these emotional buying motives, consumers may be more committed to brands
in hedonic product categories than to those in utilitarian product categories. Therefore, we expect
that consumers will demonstrate higher SSIs and CIs if a brand delisting occurs in a hedonic
rather than a utilitarian product category.
The second considered product category–related variable is the concentration level of
brands in the product category. A highly concentrated product group is characterized by few
dominant brands with high market shares, which may reflect significant perceived differences
between these dominant brands and others. We measure brand concentration level as the squared
market shares of each brand to encompass the combined market power of the available brands
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