Purpose: The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate how management practices and processes contribute to stock-outs in the warehouse retail liquor sector in Johannesburg. Research design: A pragmatic research philosophy was used in a multi-case approach to determine the association between business management practices and stock-outs. The unit of analysis of the study is the highest turnover outlets. Findings: The results revealed that retailers base demand forecasting on judgement and naive or simple moving average forecast methods. There is little consideration of variability, lead time or targeted customer service levels when determining optimal inventory levels. Product breakages are common, implying that data inaccuracies and stock-outs are highly probable. Information sharing between the retailers and suppliers is limited and formal collaboration programmes do not exist. The respondents revealed that frequent stock-outs resulted in poor business performance characterised by declining sales, customer retention and competitive advantage. Limitations: Although the sample selected represented a significant portion of the top 50% contributors to the sector’s sales, the sample is small and the focus of the study is limited, which decreases the generalisability of the results. Practical implications: Retailers can reduce stock-outs by investing in improvements in demand forecasting, synchronisation through collaboration and training of employees. Originality or value: This study provides empirical evidence of the linkages between poor management practices and processes, stock-outs, customer service and business performance.

中文翻译：

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约翰内斯堡仓库零售白酒行业的缺货调查

目的：该探索性研究的目的是调查约翰内斯堡仓库零售白酒行业的管理实践和流程如何促进缺货。研究设计：在多案例方法中使用了务实的研究理念来确定业务管理实践与缺货之间的关联。研究的分析单位是营业额最高的商店。研究结果：结果表明，零售商的需求预测基于判断力和幼稚或简单的移动平均预测方法。在确定最佳库存水平时，很少考虑可变性，交货时间或目标客户服务水平。产品损坏很常见，这意味着数据不准确和缺货的可能性很高。零售商和供应商之间的信息共享是有限的，并且不存在正式的协作程序。受访者透露，经常缺货导致业务表现不佳，其特点是销售下降，客户保留率和竞争优势。局限性：尽管所选择的样本在该行业销售额的前50％贡献者中占了很大一部分，但样本量很小且研究重点有限，这降低了结果的可推广性。实际意义：零售商可以通过投资改进需求预测，通过协作和员工培训实现同步来减少缺货。原创性或价值：这项研究提供了不良管理实践与流程，缺货，