Strategic cooperation with a backup supplier for the mitigation of supply disruptions

Abstract

We study optimal sourcing decisions for a firm with a dedicated supplier and a backup supplier. The dedicated supplier charges a lower wholesale price but faces a potential disruption risk. The backup supplier is assumed to be perfectly reliable but charges a higher wholesale price. The primary question we address is how the firm should cooperate with the backup supplier to hedge against the disruption risk. We consider three common cooperation options: advance purchase, reservation and contingency purchase. Our basic results show that the firm should choose advance purchase strategy if the disruption probability is high, while contingency purchase strategy benefits the firm more if the disruption probability is low. Under an intermediate disruption probability, the firm should choose reservation strategy only if the reservation fee is sufficiently low. Then, we explore the optimal backup strategy under partial disruption risk. The results show that the advance purchase and the reservation strategy should be adopted more widely when the dedicated supplier guarantees a relatively high yield rate after disruption.