Effect of inventory information discrepancy in a drop-shipping supply Chain

Tae Su Cheong, Mark Goh, Sang Hwa Song

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of information discrepancy between a drop-shipper and an online retailer on the drop-shipping supply chain performance. The inventory information misalignment between them contributes to the failure of order fulfillment and demand satisfaction, and hence the associated penalties are incurred. In this article, we first analyze the penalties of ignoring such information discrepancy on both the drop-shipper and the online retailer. We then assess the impact of information discrepancy on both parties when the drop-shipper understands the existence of the information discrepancy but is not able to eliminate the errors. The numerical experiments indicate that both parties can have significant amount of the percentage cost reductions if the information discrepancy can be eliminated, and the potential savings are substantial especially when the errors have large variability. Furthermore, we observe that the online retailer is more vulnerable to information discrepancy than the drop-shipper, and the drop-shipper is likely to suffer from the online retailer's underestimation of the physical inventory level more than the problem of its overestimation. Moreover, even if eliminating errors is not possible, both parties could still benefit from taking the possibility of errors into consideration in decision making.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)193-213
Number of pages21
JournalDecision Sciences
Volume46
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015 Feb 1

Keywords

  • Drop-Shipping
  • Inventory Information Discrepancy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business, Management and Accounting(all)
  • Strategy and Management
  • Information Systems and Management
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

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