Time: 9:00-11:00 am, 16 Jun

Place: Room 801, School of Management

Abstract: Bullwhip effect (BWE) in a serial supply chain has studied extensively in the supply chain management literature. Analytical research has quantified BWE at the firm-level and identified several drivers of it. Empirical research has documented the presence of BWE at the firm level but found mixed results at the industry level. Prior analytical studies have focused on a single independent firm and do not offer insights into how industry characteristics affect BWE. Furthermore, these studies do not offer reasons, other than aggregation and unit of measurement, for why BWE at the firm level seems to dissipate at the industry level. This paper explores firm-level and industry-level BWEs using a multi-firm interdependent demand model representative of an industry and provides an explanation based on rational decisions made by individual firms in response to industry characteristics for mixed results between observed firm-level BWE and industry-level BWE.