Cognitive Bias and Stakeholder Alignment in Cross-Functional Supply Chain Decisions in Industrial Manufacturing

Cross-functional supply-chain decisions in industrial manufacturing combine operational constraints with different stakeholder incentives and judgments. This paper develops the Behavioral Alignment Framework for Supply Chain Decisions (BAF-SCD), a behavioral decision framework for supplier and stakeholder negotiation that links cognitive bias, stakeholder alignment and decision governance. A purposive narrative synthesis of behavioral decision theory, negotiation psychology, stakeholder research and behavioral operations is mapped to six decision points: supplier selection, price and contract negotiation, allocation under shortage, quality disputes, make-or-buy and dual sourcing, and customer commitments. The framework moves a decision through five stages (mapping stakeholder frames, detecting bias risks, debiasing the process, negotiating for alignment, and learning from outcomes) and connects biases such as anchoring, loss aversion, reactive devaluation and escalation of commitment to decision records, independent estimates, structured challenge, pre-set exit criteria and accountable escalation. Practitioner reflection assesses the plausibility of these mechanisms, and three composite scenarios illustrate their use without representing observed cases. Six propositions are offered as candidates for empirical testing, not as evidence that the interventions improve performance. The contribution is a mechanism-based account of how functional reference points and negotiation judgment may shape supply-chain choices. Future evaluation should distinguish psychological effects from incentives, information asymmetry and market power, and should measure decision quality and implementation outcomes rather than speed of agreement.