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•Consumers are willing to pay more to shop at an extended-sized retailer.•Consumers report higher intentions to shop at an extended-sized retailer.•Extended-sized retailers are perceived to be more inclusive and trustworthy.•The size of the model featured in the advertisement influences perceived inclusivity.•This research provides key insights for retailers wanting to adopt extended sizing. This research draws from the stigmatized-identity safety cue and trust literatures to examine how consumers’ perceptions of retailers with extended-sized clothing compare to their perceptions of retailers who offer only a limited range of (smaller) standard-sized clothing. The results suggest that, compared to retailers that only sell standard-sized clothing, extended-sized retailers are perceived to be more inclusive and trustworthy. These perceptions in turn increase consumers’ willingness to pay and intentions to purchase from the retailer. Furthermore, we explore the effects of offering mixed-availability sizing (i.e., all styles available in standard sizes and limited styles available in extended sizes) and the influence of the body size of the model featured in the advertisement. This research provides retailers with timely and important information regarding how adopting extended-sized product lines can have a positive influence on consumers’ retailer-related perceptions and behaviors. [Display omitted]

We investigate how competition shapes firms’ pricing and product assortment size decisions through both theoretical modeling and empirical analysis. Our focus is on the grocery retail sector, where assortment holds particular significance for consumer choice. By analyzing a large number of markets, we find that the presence of two competing stores — as opposed to a single monopolistic store — is associated with both higher prices and a larger product assortment. This relationship holds even after accounting for both observable and unobservable differences across stores. We provide a theoretical model that explains these patterns based on two main forces. First, competitive pressure amplifies firms’ incentives to expand product assortment due to a business-stealing effect — broadening assortment becomes a strategy to attract customers away from rivals. Second, a more extensive product range improves the firm’s ability to screen consumers with heterogeneous preferences, thereby enabling strategic price increases in more competitive environments. The findings offer valuable guidance for retail managers in making strategic decisions about pricing, product assortment, and store placement. They also highlight considerations for policymakers, who must be mindful of the potential unintended consequences of zoning laws and antitrust regulations that affect competition between stores. •Competition in retailing can lead to an increase in both price and assortment levels.•The effect is likely to occur when stores use assortment to attract consumers.•Results can inform decisions on price, assortment, and store locations.•Regulations to foster competition may create unintended price-increasing results.

Despite the voluminous evidence in support of the paradoxical finding that providing individuals with more options can be detrimental to choice, the question of whether and when large assortments impede choice remains open. Even though extant research has identified a variety of antecedents and consequences of choice overload, the findings of the individual studies fail to come together into a cohesive understanding of when large assortments can benefit choice and when they can be detrimental to choice. In a meta-analysis of 99 observations (N=7202) reported by prior research, we identify four key factors—choice set complexity, decision task difficulty, preference uncertainty, and decision goal—that moderate the impact of assortment size on choice overload. We further show that each of these four factors has a reliable and significant impact on choice overload, whereby higher levels of decision task difficulty, greater choice set complexity, higher preference uncertainty, and a more prominent, effort-minimizing goal facilitate choice overload. We also find that four of the measures of choice overload used in prior research—satisfaction/confidence, regret, choice deferral, and switching likelihood—are equally powerful measures of choice overload and can be used interchangeably. Finally, we document that when moderating variables are taken into account the overall effect of assortment size on choice overload is significant—a finding counter to the data reported by prior meta-analytic research.

•Unrest reduces retail revenue via brand assortment shifts in distant markets.•Foreign brands cut assortment less than locals; global market leaders cut assortment most.•Private labels expand assortment, offering retailers a buffer when revenue declines.•Substantial brand activism mitigates assortment losses during unrest.•Findings spotlight Bangladesh, an emerging market often overlooked. Geopolitical unrest can lead to retail revenue losses and store closures. For firms dealing with the cascading challenges of such unrest, the current study offers timely empirical insights into the domino effects of unrest on a distant emerging market that is neither an ally nor closely connected to the focal unrest countries. With large-scale data before and during the Russo-Ukrainian war involving 2.9 million retail transactions and 831 brands in Bangladesh, a largely overlooked emerging market, the current research seeks to answer three important questions: To what extent does unrest affect retail sales revenue in a distant country and does brand assortment-a mediator with actionable implications-explain this relationship? Does the effect of unrest on assortment differ according to brand type (i.e., foreign brands, global market leaders, and private labels)? How do various strategies of brand activism influence the effect of unrest? The findings reveal that unrest affects retail sales revenue negatively, through assortment, but these negative effects are moderated by brand type. Foreign brands and private labels can maintain or even expand assortment, but global market leaders struggle to do so. Moreover, substantial brand activism can attenuate the negative effect of unrest on assortment. These findings extend literature that investigates mechanisms over which retailers have little control (e.g., macro environment, ideology). By introducing a new mechanism that retailers and brands can influence (i.e., brand assortment), this study offers strategic marketing implications for retail and brand managers, who can better protect themselves from unrest in distant markets. [Display omitted]

Nowadays, sustainable development and waste management are the topics on which academia is focusing. The size of the retail assortment plays a crucial role in influencing the levels of food waste in grocery stores. Additionally, the analysis of retail food waste highlights that the planning of assortment sizes is essential for reducing waste, particularly in products with expiration or best-before dates, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, where a few products contribute significantly to overall waste. This work aims to explore assortment rationalisation as a way to prevent food waste from perishable products in retail grocery stores and, therefore, improve the sustainability generated by food retail chains in developed countries. Although many articles analyse the relationship between retail store operations and food waste prevention, to our knowledge, there is little research that explicitly focuses on assortment. From the review of the specialised literature, few studies have been detected on the effects of the grocery store assortment on food waste. This paper attempts to fill part of this research gap, by focusing on establishing a link between assortment rationalisation and food waste in grocery retail stores through a review of the scientific literature on proactive food waste prevention strategies, presenting an opportunity for future research in this emerging research area, and providing practical advice to retail chains concerned about sustainability. In conclusion, this study serves as an initial approach to this topic and is a useful starting point for future research in this area. Our primary contribution lies in highlighting a certain scarcity of studies on the retailer's assortment as a proactive food waste prevention strategy.

Retail assortment optimisation plays a significant role in the success and competitive advantage of retailing, contributing to companies' market differentiation, compatibility, and profitability. This study applies transaction cost theory, related opportunism, and bounded reliability as theoretical frameworks. The aim is to analyse assortment optimisation, especially selection-reduction decisions, in relation to the manufacturer-retailer relationship in grocery store retailing. Primary quantitative research in the form of a personal survey method about the delisting decisions of 215 grocery retail executives was implemented and analysed by applying partial least squares variance-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Results show that the reason for selection reduction is often the bounded reliability of manufacturers, as this may lead to excessively high supplier prices and logistical problems. These factors result in low retail margins, justifying assortment-reduction-related decisions. However, manufacturers believe that a lack of marketing support has no impact on low retail margins and, thus, also on assortment reduction decisions.

Nowadays, sustainable development and waste management are the topics on which academia is focusing. The size of the retail assortment plays a crucial role in influencing the levels of food waste in grocery stores. Additionally, the analysis of retail food waste highlights that the planning of assortment sizes is essential for reducing waste, particularly in products with expiration or best-before dates, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, where a few products contribute significantly to overall waste. This work aims to explore assortment rationalisation as a way to prevent food waste from perishable products in retail grocery stores and, therefore, improve the sustainability generated by food retail chains in developed countries.Although many articles analyse the relationship between retail store operations and food waste prevention, to our knowledge, there is little research that explicitly focuses on assortment. From the review of the specialised literature, few studies have been detected on the effects of the grocery store assortment on food waste. This paper attempts to fill part of this research gap, by focusing on establishing a link between assortment rationalisation and food waste in grocery retail stores through a review of the scientific literature on proactive food waste prevention strategies, presenting an opportunity for future research in this emerging research area, and providing practical advice to retail chains concerned about sustainability. In conclusion, this study serves as an initial approach to this topic and is a useful starting point for future research in this area. Our primary contribution lies in highlighting a certain scarcity of studies on the retailer's assortment as a proactive food waste prevention strategy.

Influenza A virus (IAV), a highly infectious respiratory pathogen, has continued to be a significant threat to global public health. To complete their life cycle, influenza viruses have evolved multiple strategies to interact with a host. A large number of studies have revealed that the evolution of influenza A virus is mainly mediated through the mutation of the virus itself and the re-assortment of viral genomes derived from various strains. The evolution of influenza A virus through these mechanisms causes worldwide annual epidemics and occasional pandemics. Importantly, influenza A virus can evolve from an animal infected pathogen to a human infected pathogen. The highly pathogenic influenza virus has resulted in stupendous economic losses due to its morbidity and mortality both in human and animals. Influenza viruses fall into a category of viruses that can cause zoonotic infection with stable adaptation to human, leading to sustained horizontal transmission. The rapid mutations of influenza A virus result in the loss of vaccine optimal efficacy, and challenge the complete eradication of the virus. In this review, we highlight the current understanding of influenza A virus evolution caused by the mutation and re-assortment of viral genomes. In addition, we discuss the specific mechanisms by which the virus evolves.

We perform a meta-analytic review of the effect of retail assortment size on consumer perceptions, choice, and retail sales/share using a database comprising of 177 studies obtained from 95 academic papers published during 1970–2021. We define assortment size broadly as the total number of distinct alternatives (options) available to the consumer when he/she makes a choice in a product category. This number of alternatives manifest in the form of a number of brands, number of stock-keeping-units (SKUs), or simply number of items such as different colors or packaging. An increase in assortment size can lead to beneficial effects such as assortment preference, perceived choice satisfaction, confidence, freedom, purchase incidence, sales, and profits, as well as negative consequences such as information overload, increased cognitive effort, choice uncertainty, choice difficulty, and hence choice avoidance. Numerous researchers have reported the effect of assortment size on one or more of these factors. We summarize these effects using a metric called assortment size (net) benefit elasticity by positively valuing the beneficial effects and negatively valuing the harmful effects. Assortment size benefit elasticity is defined as the percent change in net benefit for a 1% change in assortment size. Our meta-analysis reveals that the mean assortment size benefit elasticity across 1936 valid elasticity observations is .082, and this effect is moderated by many study design and environmental factors. We also explore nonlinearity in assortment size effect and whether the effect is different for online vs. offline purchasing. Based on these findings, we list 30 characteristics conducive for assortment addition/deletion and specify several directions for future research. [Display omitted]

Significance Human populations are both extremely cooperative and highly structured. Mathematical models have shown that fixed network interaction structures can lead to cooperation under certain conditions, by allowing cooperators to cluster together. Here, we provide empirical evidence of this phenomenon. We explore how different fixed social network structures can promote cooperation using economic game experiments. We find that people cooperate at high stable levels, as long as the benefits created by cooperation are larger than the number of neighbors in the network. This empirical result is consistent with a rule predicted by mathematical models of evolution. Our findings show the important role social networks can play in human cooperation and provide guidance for promoting cooperative behavior. The evolution of cooperation in network-structured populations has been a major focus of theoretical work in recent years. When players are embedded in fixed networks, cooperators are more likely to interact with, and benefit from, other cooperators. In theory, this clustering can foster cooperation on fixed networks under certain circumstances. Laboratory experiments with humans, however, have thus far found no evidence that fixed network structure actually promotes cooperation. Here, we provide such evidence and help to explain why others failed to find it. First, we show that static networks can lead to a stable high level of cooperation, outperforming well-mixed populations. We then systematically vary the benefit that cooperating provides to one’s neighbors relative to the cost required to cooperate ( b / c ), as well as the average number of neighbors in the network ( k ). When b / c > k , we observe high and stable levels of cooperation. Conversely, when b / c ≤ k or players are randomly shuffled, cooperation decays. Our results are consistent with a quantitative evolutionary game theoretic prediction for when cooperation should succeed on networks and, for the first time to our knowledge, provide an experimental demonstration of the power of static network structure for stabilizing human cooperation.