The asymmetric industry contagion effects of peer behaviours for decisioning trade credit
研究发现行业传染显著影响企业提供商业信用，但对获取商业信用影响有限；供应商集中度抑制获取传染，而客户集中度对提供传染无调节作用。
While peer influences on trade credit decisions are well documented, prior studies have overlooked their asymmetric effects across providing and receiving trade credit. Using a comprehensive firm-level dataset from 2004 to 2023, we show that industry contagion significantly affects firms’ provision of trade credit but has limited impact on their receipt of trade credit. Moreover, supplier concentration significantly suppresses contagion in receiving trade credit, whereas customer concentration exerts little moderating effect in providing trade credit. Further analyses reveal that the constraining role of supplier concentration diminishes when firms possess strong institutional bargaining advantages. These findings extend research on peer influences by establishing the asymmetric nature of contagion in trade credit and by highlighting how vertical structural constraints shape firms’ responses to industry-wide pressures. This study also provides practical insights for managing trade credit strategies under both horizontal competition and vertical supply chain dependencies.