The Industrial / Societal Bullwhip Effects and Supply Chain Performance

The objective of this paper is to describe the construct of bullwhip effect beyond supply chains, namely at industrial and societal levels. The author provides a conceptual discussion of the bullwhip effect - its derivation is extended, and the positioning of the construct is broadened. The bullwhip effect has been explored within intra-organisational and inter-organisational supply chains. A broader descriptive framework is introduced, one that positions the bullwhip effect construct at industrial and societal levels. A conceptual framework is provided that bridges the interface between the micro and macro environments of the bullwhip effect construct, but further conceptualization is required. The introduced derivation and positioning of the bullwhip effect construct reveal a number of research potentials. A principal one is that the exploration of the construct may consider the industrial and/or the societal environment when the bullwhip effect is studied in supply chains. The extended derivation and broadened positioning of the bullwhip effect in the overall environment is of interest to practitioners. It stresses the importance of contextual factors in operative, tactical and strategic supply chain performance. The principal contributions are: a) an interface between micro and macro levels in supply chain performance contributing to an extended derivation of the bullwhip effect; b) a typology of the bullwhip effect contributing to broadening the positioning of the same construct; c) the bullwhip effect being seen as two-way view construct at the micro level and d) a framework ofmanagerial implications. Most important of all is that the causes and effects of the bullwhip effect have been addressed in a wider context that so far has been underestimated in literature.