Policy Uncertainty and Customer Concentration

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Leung, Woon Sau; Sun, Jiong
• 署名单位: University of Edinburgh; Purdue University System; Purdue University
• 刊物名称: PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1059-1478
• DOI: 10.1111/poms.13335
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 1517-1542
• 关键词: customer-base concentration; Economic policy uncertainty; customer-supplier relationships; firm performance

摘要

Using data involving customer-supplier relationships and a large sample of US publicly listed firms, our study documents a negative and statistically significant relationship between economic policy uncertainty and firms' customer-base concentration. The negative relation is predominant in firms with higher inventory efficiency and those operating in competitive, high-R&D, and nondurable industries. Customer-base diversification is further shown to enhance firm performance during periods of increasing policy uncertainty, but not when policy uncertainty decreases. Overall, our evidence suggests that firms respond to increasing policy uncertainty by diversifying their customer base and such behavior contributes positively to firm performance.