In particular, we propose and show

In particular, we propose and show in a series of studies in a variety of product categories that the presence of an incidental OOS option has a robust effect on consumer preferences and, more specifically, significantly increases purchase likelihood of target options. We further find that increases in purchase likelihood are not driven by incidental OOS options’ signaling impending scarcity for target options or by consumer reactance (Brehm 1966). Instead, and in line with prior findings on the constructive nature of preferences (e.g., Bettman et al. 1998) and specifically, reason-based choice (e.g., Simonson 1989), our results suggest that changes in purchase likelihood occur because incidental OOS options can provide reasons for purchase decisions of target options. In support of this proposition, we find increases in purchase likelihood only for those consumers who rely on the out- of-stock option to justify their purchase decision of the target. Additionally, we report a boundary condition of the effect, showing that increases in purchase likelihood of target options are limited to consumers who perceive the purchase decision to be relatively low in risk. In the next sections, we review relevant prior research findings and develop our hypothesis, followed by a discussion of a series of experiments testing our predictions.