For the future and from afar: Psychological distance and inventory decision-making

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kirshner, Samuel N.; Moritz, Brent B.
• 署名单位: University of New South Wales Sydney; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• DOI: 10.1111/poms.13829
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 170-188
• 关键词: Behavioral Operations; construal level theory; Inventory management; Newsvendor Problem; psychological distance

摘要

Determining inventory ahead of knowing customer demand is a crucial decision for many businesses. Although it is possible to select the ideal order quantity given the costs of over and undersupplying demand, prior research demonstrates that decision-makers consistently make suboptimal inventory choices. Drawing on construal level theory and psychological distance, this paper explores how differences in the spatial distance (suppliers that are geographically near or far) and temporal distance (short or long lead time from order to receipt) impact newsvendor decision-making. Across four experiments (N = 663), we find that a far psychological distance increases order quantities, which improves performance for high-margin products but results in added costs for low-margin goods. Given that spatial and temporal distances occur naturally in supply chains, our research shows that psychological distance is a cognitive explanation for biased inventory ordering and can be applied to improve decision-making.