Title: The behavioural causes of the bullwhip effect: breaking the mould

Authors: T.T. Niranjan, Bhimaraya A. Metri, Vijay Aggarwal

Addresses: Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, 122 001, India. ' Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, 122 001, India. ' Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, 122 001, India

Abstract: The Bullwhip Effect (BWE) has been a major challenge facing supply chains for several decades. An important stream of literature has developed around Supply Line Underweighting (SLU) and hoarding behaviour as the behavioural causes of BWE. The present study builds on these studies and devises novel experiments to replicate and verify them. The findings suggest that the aforementioned behavioural causes do not hold and point to a need to break new ground on this well-researched topic. The paper concludes with the managerial and research implications.

Keywords: bullwhip effect; BWE; behavioural causes; beer game; experiments; behavioural operations; supply line underweighting; SLU; supply chain management; SCM; managerial incentives; inventory management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2009.024151

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2009 Vol.5 No.3, pp.350 - 374

Published online: 27 Mar 2009 *

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