Empirical study on the bullwhip effect in Chinese industry—Based on the statistical data from Chinese listed companies

The bullwhip effect is the phenomenon of increasing demand variability in the supply chain from the downstream echelons (retailers) to upstream echelons (manufacturers), namely the fluctuation (variance) of the supplier´s production is greater than the fluctuation (variance) of the customer´s demand. The previous literatures of operation management emphasized more on explaining the causes of bullwhip effect and the corresponding weakening measures, but rarely did relevant empirical research. Based on the data from listed companies, this paper studied the intensity of bullwhip effect from the perspective of the industries of China. The empirical results show that wholesale industries generally exhibit bullwhip effects, but less retail industries exhibit the effect, and some of manufacturing industries also exhibit the effect. Meanwhile, we don´t find that the demand variability in the supply chain is enlarging gradually from downstream to upstream, manufacturing industries do not always have greater demand volatility than retail industries, and wholesale industries even have greater demand volatility than retail industries.