We investigate competitive interactions in the context of inventory management by examining how the leader firm's past inventory management affects the challenger firm's current inventory management and how the challenger firm's past inventory management affects the leader firm's current inventory management. The leader and the challenger firms in an industry are respectively the firms holding the highest and second highest market share. We also investigate the moderating effects of market share gap and industry growth on this dynamic relationship. Based on a sample of 4897 firm-year observations in the U.S. manufacturing sector and covering the period 1987–2015, we find that the inventory management decisions of a firm are significantly affected by the actions of its main rival. This dynamic relationship, triggered as a result of competitive imitation in inventory management, is found to be significantly moderated by market share differences between the two firms. We also offer a mathematical model that illustrates the competitive action-reaction cycle regarding inventory decisions, and we extend the existing literature on competitive dynamics to recognize strategic and tactical inventory decisions.

我们通过检查领先公司过去的库存管理如何影响挑战者公司的当前库存管理以及挑战者公司过去的库存管理如何影响领先公司的当前库存管理来研究库存管理背景下的竞争相互作用。一个行业中的领先企业和挑战者企业分别是拥有最高和第二大市场份额的企业。我们还调查了市场份额差距和行业增长对这种动态关系的调节作用。基于美国制造业 4897 个公司年度观察样本，涵盖 1987 年至 2015 年期间，我们发现公司的库存管理决策受到其主要竞争对手行为的显着影响。这种动态的关系，发现由于库存管理中的竞争模仿而触发，被发现被两家公司之间的市场份额差异显着缓和。我们还提供了一个数学模型，用于说明有关库存决策的竞争行动 - 反应周期，并且我们扩展了有关竞争动态的现有文献，以识别战略和战术库存决策。