Analysis of Bullwhip effect: A Behavioral Approach

ABSTRACT

Bullwhip effect (BWE) in a supply chain is a phenomenon wherein variance in orders placed increases as one moves upstream in the supply chain. This paper analyses the bullwhip effect from human behaviour perspective using beer distribution game (BDG). Personality traits of respondents were quantified using the big five inventory. Openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism are the five broad traits studied as independent variables (IVs). Inventory holding cost, back order cost and bullwhip effect (Quantified) were studied as dependent variables (DVs). Conscientiousness also acted as a moderator besides being an IV and had a weak negative correlation with BWE and costs. Openness related positively to DVs in some relationships which were significant. Reason for this anomaly was found in the moderation/interaction of personality traits with conscientiousness. The important findings are that personality matters in complex decision making in a supply chain. Moreover, traits interact with each other. The best performers were those who were high on conscientiousness and openness.

KEYWORDS:

• Supply chain management
• behavioural operations management
• beer distribution game
• inventory management and structural equation modelling

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Notes on contributors

Maaz Hasan Khan

Maaz Hasan Khan Maaz Hasan Khan is a PhD in Operations Management from AMU, Central University at Aligarh INDIA. The author is currently working as a teaching faculty at the National Institute of Technology Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India. His area of interest is Behavioral Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, Sustainable Development of Supply Chains and Optimization.

Salma Ahmed

Salma Ahmed Salma Ahmed is a Professor at the Business Administration Department, FMSR, AMU, Aligarh. The author has a teaching experience of over 27 Years. She has supervised several PhDs, Projects (as PI), received awards in National and International conferences, published books and delivered several keynote lectures. The area of interest is supply chain management, Knowledge Management and Information System. She has a special interest in writing and analyzing cases and has to her credit seventeen case analyses published in reputed journals

Danish Hussain

Danish Hussain Danish Hussain is a PhD in Business Administration from the FMSR, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), India. His area of research includes media communications, advertising and branding. Management