Bid-Taker Power and Supply Base Diversification

Zhixi Wan () and Damian R. Beil ()
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Zhixi Wan: Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97401
Damian R. Beil: Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2014, vol. 16, issue 2, 300-314

Abstract: We study a buyer who periodically auctions off short-term supply contracts among her supply base. To mitigate significant cost shocks to procurement, the buyer can diversify her supply base by selecting suppliers from different regions. We find that the buyer's decision to diversify depends on her bid-taker power—that is, her ability to choose the auction mechanism. At one extreme, when the buyer has full bid-taker power and thus can dictatorially implement the optimal mechanism, she always prefers to diversify. At the other extreme, when the buyer uses a reverse English auction with no reserve price due to her lack of bid-taker power, she generally prefers to protect herself against potential price escalation from cost-advantaged suppliers by diversifying less. The managerial insight is that the more bid-taker power the buyer has to control price escalation from cost-advantaged suppliers the more she prefers a diversified supply base. This insight is shown to be robust to correlation between regional costs, ex ante asymmetry between regions, and intermediate levels of bid-taker power.

Keywords: supply base design; procurement auctions; bid-taker power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormsom:v:16:y:2014:i:2:p:300-314

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