Balakrishnan, Jaydeepda Silveira, Giovani JCZhu, Tianyuan2023-05-112021-07-06Zhu, T. (2021). Bullwhip Effect in the Oil and Gas Supply Chain (Doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca .http://hdl.handle.net/1880/116390https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/dspace/41234The bullwhip effect refers to the phenomenon where demand variability is amplified from downstream to upstream in the supply chain. My thesis consists of three studies investigating the bullwhip effect in different types of companies in the North American oil and gas supply chain. The first study of my thesis investigates the factors that impact the bullwhip effect in the oil and gas supply chain using case study evidence from six companies, covering refining and marketing, exploration and production, integrated oil and gas, and drilling. It is found that the existing theories of the bullwhip effect have limitations in explaining the phenomenon in the oil and gas industry. Information sharing, a widely advocated countermeasure of the bullwhip effect, may not be relevant in the integrated oil and gas company. The analysis also suggests that the bullwhip effect in companies involved in the oil and gas exploration and development activities mainly exists in orders of capital items or services related to capital investments. Financial factors considered in the capital budgeting process, such as the oil price and cash flow, play an important role in determining order quantities in these companies. Therefore, the second study of my thesis quantifies the firm-level bullwhip effect in orders of capital items or services related to capital investments, and examines the impacts of oil price and cash flow variabilities on the bullwhip effect in exploration and production, drilling, and oilfield service companies. The results show that the relationships between oil price variability and bullwhip effect and between cash flow variability and bullwhip effect are both non-linear and more complicated than previously proposed. The third paper of my thesis explores the relationship between the firm-level bullwhip effect in orders of capital items or services related to capital investments and firm performance in exploration and production, drilling, and oilfield service companies. Different from the previous results obtained in the manufacturing industries, it is found that the highest firm performance is not achieved when the bullwhip effect is largely smoothed, and the bullwhip effect influences the firm performance on the income side rather than the asset side.EnglishBusiness Administration--Managementdoctoral thesis