Strategic Sourcing Under Severe Disruption Risk: Learning Failures and Under-Diversification Bias

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Goldschmidt, Kyle; Kremer, Mirko; Thomas, Douglas J.; Craighead, Christopher W.
• 署名单位: University of St Thomas Minnesota; Frankfurt School Finance & Management; University of Virginia; University of Tennessee System; University of Tennessee Knoxville
• 刊物名称: M&SOM-MANUFACTURING & SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1523-4614
• DOI: 10.1287/msom.2020.0907
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 761-780
• 关键词: Supply chain disruptions; procurement; supply chain risk management; behavioral experiment

摘要

Problem definition: We study sourcing behavior in severe conditions where supply disruptions are rare but carry the potential of wiping out several rounds worth of a firm's profit. Academic/practical relevance: The tradeoff between scale economies from supplier consolidation and risk mitigation from supplier diversification is at the core of firms' sourcing strategy and one that is empirically understudied. Methodology: We study supplier diversification through a behavioral lens and test theoretically derived predictions under controlled laboratory conditions. Results: Our data provide strong evidence for under-diversification. We posit that this pattern is partly because of the fact that investing in supplier diversification involves an upfront cost to achieve a delayed, and rarely encountered, benefit. Managerial implications: Under-diversification bias is costly, and its causes are difficult to overcome, presenting firms with the daunting task of devising debiasing mechanisms that reinforce a supplier diversification strategy when the rarity of disruptions almost always render supplier consolidation the ex post preferred strategy.