PONE-D-19-27282

Effects of trust-based decision making in disrupted supply chains

PLOS ONE

Dear Ms. Doroudi,

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

Reviewer #4: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: To study a pharmaceutical supply chain with boundedly rational artificial decision makers capable of reasoning about the motivations and behaviors of others, authors use multi-agent simulations where each agent represents a key decision maker in a pharmaceutical supply chain. Their experiments reveal several counter-intuitive results showing how small, local disruptions can have cascading global consequences that persist over time. Authors also demonstrate how timing and scale of disruptions interacts with buyer’s sensitivity to trustworthiness.

It is good writing paper and is suitable for publications in PLOS ONE.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript is interesting and technically sound.

However, the English usage of the submitted paper need to be further polished, a careful reading of a native English speaker is necessary.

Reviewer #3: This paper is more interesting and now is presented in a good format. Still, it could be better to consider more scenarios for obtaining more comprehensive insights. If my concern is considered，this paper can be accepted for publication.

Reviewer #4: This paper reports on a multi-agent system for analyzing (combined) trust-based decisions and disruption impact on supply chain performance, cost for instance. The paper is well written and the explanation of the model is quite clear. The analysis of the example is also quite sound.

My only remark relates to the positioning of this research with regard to existing literature, I would suggest breaking down the introduction into two parts: 1) introduction and 2) state of the art and positioning. A quick search in two data bases pointed the following titles of published research works, which can benefit the improvement of the state of the art:

- A multi-agent systems approach for sustainable supplier selection and order allocation in a partnership supply chain

- An adaptive multi-agent system for cost collaborative management in supply chains

- Analysis of the performance of supply chains configurations using multi-agent systems

- Customer order fulfilment in mass customization context - An agent-based approach

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

Reviewer #4: No

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Effects of trust-based decision making in disrupted supply chains

PONE-D-19-27282R1

Dear Dr. Doroudi,

We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it complies with all outstanding technical requirements.

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With kind regards,

Baogui Xin, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: