IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v51y2005i2p181-194.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Econometric Analysis of Inventory Turnover Performance in Retail Services

Author

Listed:
  • Vishal Gaur

    (Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University, 44 West 4th Street, New York, New York 10012)

  • Marshall L. Fisher

    (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Jon M. Huntsman Hall, 3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6366)

  • Ananth Raman

    (Harvard Business School, Morgan Hall, Soldiers Field, Boston, Massachusetts 02163)

Abstract

Inventory turnover varies widely across retailers and over time. This variation undermines the usefulness of inventory turnover in performance analysis, benchmarking, and working capital management. We develop an empirical model using financial data for 311 publicly listed retail firms for the years 1987--2000 to investigate the correlation of inventory turnover with gross margin, capital intensity, and sales surprise (the ratio of actual sales to expected sales for the year). The model explains 66.7% of the within-firm variation and 97.2% of the total variation (across and within firms) in inventory turnover. It yields an alternative metric of inventory productivity, adjusted inventory turnover, which empirically adjusts inventory turnover for changes in gross margin, capital intensity, and sales surprise, and can be applied in performance analysis and managerial decision making. We also compute time trends in inventory turnover and adjusted inventory turnover, and find that both have declined in retailing during the 1987--2000 period.

Suggested Citation

  • Vishal Gaur & Marshall L. Fisher & Ananth Raman, 2005. "An Econometric Analysis of Inventory Turnover Performance in Retail Services," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(2), pages 181-194, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:51:y:2005:i:2:p:181-194
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1040.0298
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1040.0298
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.1040.0298?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hausman, Jerry A & Taylor, William E, 1981. "Panel Data and Unobservable Individual Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1377-1398, November.
    2. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    3. Sunder Kekre & Kannan Srinivasan, 1990. "Broader Product Line: A Necessity to Achieve Success?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(10), pages 1216-1232, October.
    4. Schmalensee, Richard, 1985. "Do Markets Differ Much?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 341-351, June.
    5. Garrett van Ryzin & Siddharth Mahajan, 1999. "On the Relationship Between Inventory Costs and Variety Benefits in Retail Assortments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(11), pages 1496-1509, November.
    6. Pashigian, B Peter, 1988. "Demand Uncertainty and Sales: A Study of Fashion and Markdown Pricin g," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(5), pages 936-953, December.
    7. ANITA M. McGAHAN & MICHAEL E. PORTER, 1997. "How Much Does Industry Matter, Really?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(S1), pages 15-30, July.
    8. Lazear, Edward P, 1986. "Retail Pricing and Clearance Sales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(1), pages 14-32, March.
    9. Kevin B. Hendricks & Vinod R. Singhal, 1997. "Does Implementing an Effective TQM Program Actually Improve Operating Performance? Empirical Evidence from Firms That Have Won Quality Awards," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(9), pages 1258-1274, September.
    10. Richard P. Rumelt, 1991. "How much does industry matter?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 167-185, March.
    11. Peter L. Jackson, 1988. "Stock Allocation in a Two-Echelon Distribution System Or "What to Do Until Your Ship Comes In"," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(7), pages 880-895, July.
    12. Kelvin Lancaster, 1990. "The Economics of Product Variety: A Survey," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(3), pages 189-206.
    13. Kevin B. Hendricks & Vinod R. Singhal, 2001. "The Long-Run Stock Price Performance of Firms with Effective TQM Programs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(3), pages 359-368, March.
    14. Gérard P. Cachon & Marshall Fisher, 2000. "Supply Chain Inventory Management and the Value of Shared Information," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(8), pages 1032-1048, August.
    15. Theodore H. Clark & Janice H. Hammond, 1997. "Reengineering Channel Reordering Processes To Improve Total Supply‐Chain Performance," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 6(3), pages 248-265, September.
    16. Jayashankar M. Swaminathan & Sridhar R. Tayur, 1998. "Managing Broader Product Lines through Delayed Differentiation Using Vanilla Boxes," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(12-Part-2), pages 161-172, December.
    17. Hau L. Lee & Christopher S. Tang, 1997. "Modelling the Costs and Benefits of Delayed Product Differentiation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 40-53, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kolias, Georgios D. & Dimelis, Sophia P. & Filios, Vasilios P., 2011. "An empirical analysis of inventory turnover behaviour in Greek retail sector: 2000-2005," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(1), pages 143-153, September.
    2. Wan, Xiang & Britto, Rodrigo & Zhou, Zenan, 2020. "In search of the negative relationship between product variety and inventory turnover," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    3. Kai-Lung Hui, 2004. "Product Variety Under Brand Influence: An Empirical Investigation of Personal Computer Demand," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(5), pages 686-700, May.
    4. Tang, Christopher S., 2006. "Perspectives in supply chain risk management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 451-488, October.
    5. Stoneman, Paul, 2011. "Soft Innovation: Economics, Product Aesthetics, and the Creative Industries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199697021, Decembrie.
    6. Garrett van Ryzin & Siddharth Mahajan, 1999. "On the Relationship Between Inventory Costs and Variety Benefits in Retail Assortments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(11), pages 1496-1509, November.
    7. Haim Mendelson & Ali K. Parlaktürk, 2008. "Product-Line Competition: Customization vs. Proliferation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(12), pages 2039-2053, December.
    8. Yi-Min Chen, 2008. "How Much Does Country Matter?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 31(4), pages 404-435, October.
    9. Wallace J. Hopp & Xiaowei Xu, 2005. "Product Line Selection and Pricing with Modularity in Design," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 7(3), pages 172-187, August.
    10. Vaagen, Hajnalka & Wallace, Stein W., 2008. "Product variety arising from hedging in the fashion supply chains," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 431-455, August.
    11. Changhyun Kim & Richard A. Bettis, 2014. "Cash is surprisingly valuable as a strategic asset," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(13), pages 2053-2063, December.
    12. Christmann, Petra & Day, Diana & Yip, George S., 1999. "The relative influence of country conditions, industry structure, and business strategy on multinational corporation subsidiary performance," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 5(4), pages 241-265.
    13. Ayd{i}n Alptekinou{g}lu & Charles J. Corbett, 2008. "Mass Customization vs. Mass Production: Variety and Price Competition," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 10(2), pages 204-217, August.
    14. Eriksen, Bo & Knudsen, Thorbjorn, 2003. "Industry and firm level interaction: Implications for profitability," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 191-199, March.
    15. Martijn J. Burger & Frank G. Oort & Otto Raspe, 2011. "Agglomeration and New Establishment Survival: A Mixed Hierarchical and Cross-Classified Model," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp & Roger R. Stough (ed.), Drivers of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Regional Dynamics, pages 45-63, Springer.
    16. Jose G. Vargas-Hernandez, M.B.A., 2014. "Research Methodology Strategies In Strategic Management," Interdisciplinary Management Research, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Economics, Croatia, vol. 10, pages 106-147.
    17. Dmitry Sharapov & Paul Kattuman & Diego Rodriguez & F. Javier Velazquez, 2021. "Using the SHAPLEY value approach to variance decomposition in strategy research: Diversification, internationalization, and corporate group effects on affiliate profitability," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 608-623, March.
    18. Nair, Anand & Closs, David J., 2006. "An examination of the impact of coordinating supply chain policies and price markdowns on short lifecycle product retail performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 379-392, August.
    19. Tarziján, Jorge & Brahm, Francisco & Daiber, Luis Felipe, 2008. "Entrepreneurial profitability and persistence: Chile versus the U.S.A," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 599-608, June.
    20. Schiefer, Jan & Hartmann, Monika, 2009. "Industry, firm, year, and country effects on profitability: Evidence from a large sample of EU food processing firms," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49322, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:51:y:2005:i:2:p:181-194. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.