Companies exercising dominant market power in a supply chain may be unaware of adverse effects of their actions. Industries dominated by one or two firms are subject to excessive inventories, high instability and overall suboptimal performance.

The research study entails understanding how the actions taken by a dominant firm in its apparent self-interest can hurt its supply chain and how the suboptimal supply chain can then hurt the dominant firm's performance.

The researchers take a system dynamics approach to understand the dynamics of supply chains dominated by a single firm. The research team will share its initial framing of the problem and some very preliminary insights.

 

Students may request materials from Robynne DeCaprio at <decaprio@mit.edu>