Retail inventory shrinkage, resulting primarily from employee theft and shoplifting, costs retailers nearly $70 billion annually. With brick-and-mortar retailers today confronting increased competition and low future growth expectations, reducing inventory shrinkage is becoming even more critical to becoming profitable. This paper analyzes a unique dataset that combines both primary survey and objective archival data from a Fortune 500 retailer to test a theoretical model associating retail inventory shrinkage, the capacity of a retail store to sense weak security breach signals, centralization of decision making, and formalization of security breach management. The analysis builds on insights from high reliability organization theory and the literature on organizational structure. Results reveal that as a retail store increases its capacity to sense weak security breach signals, it observes decreases in store-level inventory shrinkage, with this negative association amplified (dampened) when the retail store has formalized procedures and protocols for managing security breaches (has centralized decision making within the retail store). Moreover, while the establishment of formalized procedures and protocols for managing security breaches bolsters the capacity of a retail store to sense weak security breach signals, centralizing decision making has the opposite effect. Our findings contribute to the retail operations literature by introducing a new store-level organizational capability to guard against theft-based retail inventory shrinkage and by offering novel insights into how and why organizational structure at the level of a retail store deters or facilitates the capacity to sense weak security breach signals. From a practical perspective, these findings advise retailers to develop the capability to become aware of and to mitigate security breaches. Further, to support this capacity, retailers are urged to decentralize decision making to retail store personnel and to invest in formalizing procedures and protocols for managing security breaches in order to deter retail thefts that shrink retail store inventory.

中文翻译：

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零售库存收缩、感知弱安全漏洞信号和组织结构

主要由员工盗窃和入店行窃造成的零售库存缩减每年使零售商损失近 700 亿美元。如今，实体零售商面临着日益激烈的竞争和较低的未来增长预期，减少库存缩减对于实现盈利变得更加关键。本文分析了一个独特的数据集，该数据集结合了财富 500 强零售商的初步调查和客观档案数据，以测试与零售库存缩减、零售店感知弱安全漏洞信号的能力、决策制定的集中化和形式化相关联的理论模型安全漏洞管理。该分析建立在高可靠性组织理论和组织结构文献的见解之上。结果显示，随着零售店增强其感知微弱安全漏洞信号的能力，它观察到商店级库存减少的减少，当零售店已经正式制定管理安全漏洞的程序和协议时，这种负面关联会被放大（减弱）零售店内的集中决策）。此外，虽然建立正式的安全漏洞管理程序和协议可以增强零售店感知微弱安全漏洞信号的能力，但集中决策会产生相反的效果。我们的研究结果通过引入新的商店级组织能力来防止基于盗窃的零售库存缩减，以及通过提供新颖的见解来了解零售店级组织结构如何以及为什么阻止或促进能力，从而为零售运营文献做出贡献。感知微弱的安全漏洞信号。从实际的角度来看，这些发现建议零售商培养了解和减轻安全漏洞的能力。此外，为了支持这种能力，敦促零售商将决策权下放给零售店员工，并投资于管理安全漏洞的正式程序和协议，以阻止导致零售店库存减少的零售盗窃。从实际的角度来看，这些发现建议零售商培养了解和减轻安全漏洞的能力。此外，为了支持这种能力，敦促零售商将决策权下放给零售店员工，并投资于管理安全漏洞的正式程序和协议，以阻止导致零售店库存减少的零售盗窃。从实际的角度来看，这些发现建议零售商培养了解和减轻安全漏洞的能力。此外，为了支持这种能力，敦促零售商将决策权下放给零售店员工，并投资于管理安全漏洞的正式程序和协议，以阻止导致零售店库存减少的零售盗窃。