Effect of transaction cost and coordination mechanisms on the length of the supply chain

A drastic reduction in the cost of transmitting information has tremendously increased the flow and availability of information. Greater availability of information increases the firm's ability to manage its supply chain and, therefore, increases its operational performance. However, current literature is ambiguous about whether increased information flows leads to either a reduction or increase in transaction cost, which enable supply chains to migrate towards more market-based transactions or hierarchal-based transactions. This research empirically demonstrates that the governance structure of the supply chains changes towards market-based transactions due to a lowering of transaction costs after 1987. Much of the results is based on the theory of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and the role of asset specificity, uncertainty, and frequency in determining whether or not industries are moving towards markets or hierarchies. Unlike previous supply chain management literature that focuses on relatively short supply chains consisting of two or three supply chain members, Input-Output tables allow for analysis of supply chains with many more members. This paper uses the 1982, 1987, 1992, and 1997 U.S. Benchmark Input-Output tables published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis to analyze supply chains. In so doing, this dissertation not only provides insight into how supply chain structures are changing but also offers a sample methodology for other researchers interested in using Input-Output analysis for further supply chain management research.; The second part of the dissertation focuses on looking at the effect of different coordination mechanisms on supply chain length and supply drain performance using simulation. Three different heuristics that model ordering policies are used to simulate coordination mechanisms. Efficiency is measured on the basis of minimized total net stock for each heuristic used. The results are checked for robustness by using four different demand distributions. The results indicate that, if a supply chain has minimized its net stock, then the heuristic used by various echelons in the supply chain need not be harmonized. Also, disintermediation helps in improving the performance of the supply chain.