The statement is false. Inventory shrinkage is the general term for the reduction in a company's physical inventory that is not accounted for in the records. This reduction is caused by a combination of factors, with theft being a primary component. Other causes include administrative errors (e.g., miscounting, pricing errors), vendor fraud, damage, and spoilage. The statement incorrectly excludes theft from this definition.

The statement is incorrect because it provides a definition of inventory shrinkage that explicitly and wrongly excludes theft. In fraud examination and accounting, theft (both by employees and external parties like shoplifters) is considered a major, and often the largest, contributor to inventory shrinkage. The term is an umbrella concept that encompasses losses from both fraudulent and non-fraudulent activities.

1. Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). (2023). Fraud Examiners Manual, International Edition. Section 2: The Fraud Tree, "Non-Cash Misappropriation Schemes." The manual defines shrinkage as the unaccounted-for reduction in inventory, which includes theft, spoilage, and administrative errors as its primary causes. It explicitly discusses inventory theft as a key component of shrinkage that fraud examiners investigate.

2. Albrecht, W. S., Albrecht, C. O., Albrecht, C. C., & Zimbelman, M. F. (2019). Fraud Examination (6th ed.). Cengage Learning. In Chapter 8, "Theft Acts," the text explains, "When inventory is stolen, the key concealment issue for the fraudster is shrinkage. Inventory shrinkage is the decrease in inventory that a company experiences that is not due to sales." This directly links theft to the concept of shrinkage.

3. Beck, A. (2011). Self-scan checkouts and retail theft: The limits of trust and technology. Security Journal, 24(3), 199-215. https://doi.org/10.1057/sj.2011.15. This academic article discusses retail loss and consistently uses the term "shrinkage" to encompass losses from various sources, with a significant focus on theft as a major driver. The study analyzes how different checkout technologies impact shrinkage levels, which are understood to be composed of theft and other errors.