Impact of uncertain demand and channel power on dual channel supply chain decisions.

The paper aims to conduct an analysis of pricing strategies in a dual channel supply chain under external uncertainty, utilizing Interval numbers theory and Game theory as the theoretical basis. The focus is on maximizing the expected profits of manufacturers and retailers. Four models are considered: centralized decision-making, manufacturer's Stackelberg, retailer's Stackelberg strategy, and vertical Nash model, with the decision variable being the product price. By solving the game model, the paper compares the optimal decisions under the four models and conducts sensitivity analysis to reflect the influence of key parameters and analyze their relationships. The ultimate goal is to optimize profits under various circumstances by adjusting market potential and price parameters to determine the best price level. The findings suggest that decision-maker's risk indicators have a greater impact on decision results when market demand is less sensitive to price, and that the size of the market has a negative correlation with the impact of decision-maker's risk indicators on decision results.

Supply chain decision based on green investment subsidy and risk aversion.

Considering the risk aversion characteristics of supply chain members, how to effectively design the government subsidy strategy and green supply chain strategy is a realistic and urgent issue. Regarding this, we optimize and compare four three-stage Stackelberg game models between government and a two-echelon green supply chain, namely both manufacturer and retailer risk neutral (BN), manufacturer risk aversion while retailer risk neutral (MA), retailer risk aversion while manufacturer risk neutral (RA) and both manufacturer and retailer risk aversion (BA). The government as the leader decides the subsidy rate of green input cost with the goal of maximizing social welfare; the manufacturer as the first follower makes decisions on product greenness and wholesale price to maximize its own interests; and the retailer as the second follower determines retail prices to maximize its own interests. Employing mathematical reasoning and numerical simulation investigate thoroughly the effects of the government subsidies and the members' risk aversion. Results indicate that an appropriate government subsidy investment has a positive effect on optimal decisions and related benefits. Risk aversion is in favor of improvement of product greenness and social welfare while reduction of retail price. With the increase of manufacturer risk aversion, green subsidy investment rate and retailer expected revenue increase; on the contrary, the wholesale price and manufacturer expected revenue decrease. With the increase of retailer risk aversion, the wholesale price and manufacturer expected revenue increase, while green subsidy investment rate and retailer expected revenue decrease. In the model of BN, product greenness and social welfare are the lowest, while retail price is the highest. BA is opposite to BN. In the model of RA, green subsidy investment rate and retailer expected revenue the lowest, while wholesale price and manufacturer expected revenue the highest. RA is opposite to MA. The government should formulate appropriate subsidy policies to encourage manufacturers to produce green products and raise consumers' green awareness. Enterprises should control their own risk aversion and assess the risk aversion of the other party reasonably.

Manufacturer invasion and online sales mode strategy considering the level of service quality.

This study investigates the decision process of own-brand intrusion by contract manufacturers and their selection of invasion sales modes under the consideration of service quality disparities between brand manufacturers and contract manufacturers. Specifically, the study constructs a three-tier supply chain system comprising a brand manufacturer, a contract manufacturer, and an e-commerce platform. The equilibrium profits under different sales mode combinations are determined by using reverse induction methodology, and the optimal sales mode combinations are analyzed and compared. The study reveals that the decision process of contract manufacturers' own-brand invasion depends on the potential market demand. Furthermore, when brand manufacturers adopt the reselling mode, the service quality level does not affect the decision process of invasion sales modes. However, when brand manufacturers adopt the agency mode, contract manufacturers with low service quality levels are more suitable for invasion through the agency mode, whereas contract manufacturers with high service quality levels are better suited for invasion through the reselling mode. Additionally, for the equilibrium sales mode combination among members of the supply chain, it is observed that with lower commission rates, both brand manufacturers and contract manufacturers choose the agency mode, while with higher commission rates, both choose the reselling mode. When commission rates are moderate, brand manufacturers prefer the agency mode, whereas contract manufacturers prefer the reselling mode.

Modelling of pricing, crashing, and coordination strategies of prefabricated construction supply Chain with power structure.

In the prefabricated construction industry, consumers are sensitive to the construction delivery time, and different power structures are very common. This research uses methods of Stackelberg game, Nash game and supply chain coordination, introduces a manufacturer crashing strategy into a prefabricated construction supply chain and investigates the assembler pricing, manufacturer crashing, and supply chain coordination strategies under three different power structures. It finds that adopting a crashing strategy improves the supply chain's profit, while the dynamic wholesale price contract achieves supply chain coordination. Meanwhile, when consumer time and price sensitivity are low, it is easier to achieve high profits in the supply chain under unequal power distribution. Conversely, the supply chain profit is higher in the case of a Nash game. This study innovatively introduces the thought of power structure and crashing strategy into the prefabricated construction supply chain, and provides the optimal price and delivery time under three different power structures for prefabricated construction enterprises and realizes supply chain coordination. The conclusion can provide decision suggestions for the prefabricated construction enterprises under different competitive environments.

Optimal decisions on price and inventory for a newsboy-type retailer with identifiable information and discount promotion.

Consider a retailer selling a seasonal item, new items are stocked at the beginning of sale season and no inventory replenishment is permitted. Assuming the initial price is exogenous and the information about demand becomes more accurate as the sales season progresses, the retailer is allowed to make an in-season price adjustment after conducting a review. After the review time, if the price is adjusted to be lower than the initial price, demand increases more quickly with price decreasing which reflects the promotional effect of discount. Given the initial inventory, an optimal price adjusting model is proposed to maximize the retailer's revenue. Taking decisions on inventory into account, the proposed model is extended to maximize the retailer's profit rather than revenue. Numerical examples are also illustrated to test the proposed model. The results show that the optimal in-season price mainly depends on the proportion of the remaining demand, the price sensitivity, and the effect of sales promotion. An important managerial implication is that the retailer should gather the demand information about the price and raise the in-season price as soon as possible to gain more revenue when the price elasticity is small enough. Otherwise, when the price elasticity is larger, the retailer should maintain or decrease the price to gain more revenue.

An analysis of strategies for adopting blockchain in green supply chains under corporate social responsibility.

In recent years, green products have received increasing attention by firms and consumers, but consumers often have uncertainty about the green degree of products. Many firms adopt blockchain technology to solve this problem, but blockchain adoption will bring privacy concerns to consumers. Meanwhile, corporate social responsibility has become one of the hot topics concerned by firms. Based on this, a Stackelberg game model dominated by the manufacturer is constructed to study the strategies of blockchain adoption for green supply chains under corporate social responsibility. The interaction of corporate social responsibility awareness and blockchain adoption in different models is verified through the calculation and simulation analysis of the optimal decision of the supply chain members. The research results show that no matter whether supply chain members have corporate social responsibility awareness, the manufacturer should adopt blockchain technology only when the privacy cost of consumers is low. After blockchain technology is adopted, the profit and utility of retailer, the manufacturer's utility, consumer surplus, and social welfare will be higher. However, when the manufacturer has corporate social responsibility awareness, the manufacturer's profit may be damaged by blockchain adoption. In addition, when supply chain members have corporate social responsibility awareness, the manufacturer is more likely to adopt blockchain technology. And with the enhancement of corporate social responsibility awareness, blockchain technology is more likely to be adopted. It provides a reference for the blockchain adoption strategies of the green supply chain under corporate social responsibility.

Effect and formulation of ecolabel policy: A perspective of green supply chain decision and coordination.

Ecolabel policy has become an important strategy to encourage the consumption of green products throughout the world, contributing to sustainable development which is an inevitable choice for human society. Considering the manufacturer's reputation, consumer's environmental awareness, and effects of ecolabel certification on product demand, this study proposes several Stankelberg game models containing one manufacturer and one retailer to compare the optimal decisions and the impacts on the green supply chain with/without ecolabel certification, where four different scenarios are investigated in the centralized and decentralized situations. The results indicate that the ecolabel policy only functions below a threshold associated with the consumer's environmental awareness, which is higher in the decentralized situation. On the contrary, the optimal ecolabel standard in the centralized decision-making situation is higher than that in the decentralized ones if maximizing the environmental benefit. For the manufacturer, only when producing products as the ecolabel standard can it get the optimal profit. Finally, a wholesale price contract with the manufacturer's reputation is proposed, which improves the product's green degree and the environmental benefit to the optimal level in a decentralized supply chain.

Effectiveness of price limits: Evidence from China's ChiNext market.

Starting from August 24, 2020, the daily stock price limits in China's ChiNext market have been adjusted from 10% to 20%. We use this reform to study the effectiveness of price limits in China's stock market. We test four hypotheses about price limits: delayed price discovery, volatility spillover, trading interference, and magnet effect. Using the event study method, we examine the differences in the behavior of stock price, trading volume, and volatility before and after the reform. We confirm the delayed price discovery, volatility spillover and trading interference hypothesis of price limits, and find that these negative effects of price limits are more serious when lower limits are hit. In addition, we examine the distribution of large price movements before and after the reform and find no evidence of the magnet effect of price limits. The present research has important implications for policymakers and investors in China's stock market.

Real-life experiments in supermarkets to encourage healthy dietary-related behaviours: opportunities, challenges and lessons learned.

BACKGROUND: Supermarkets are the primary source of food for many people yet their full potential as a setting to encourage healthy dietary-related behaviours remains underutilised. Sharing the experiences from research groups who have worked with supermarket chains to evaluate strategies that promote healthy eating could improve the efficiency of building such relationships and enhance the design quality of future research studies. METHODS: A collective case study approach was used to synthesise experiences of engaging and sustaining research collaborations with national supermarket chains to test the effectiveness of health-focused in-store interventions. The collective narrative covers studies conducted in three high-income countries: Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. RESULTS: We have distilled our experiences and lessons learned into six recommendations for conducting high quality public health research with commercial supermarket chains. These include: (i) using personal contacts, knowledge of supermarket activities and engaging executive management to establish a partnership and allowing time to build trust; (ii) using scientifically robust study designs with appropriate sample size calculations; (iii) formalising data exchange arrangements and allocating adequate resource for data extraction and re-categorisation; (iv) assessing effects at individual/households level where possible; (v) designing a mixed-methods process evaluation to measure intervention fidelity, dose and unintended consequences; and (vi) ensuring scientific independence through formal contract agreements. CONCLUSIONS: Our collective experiences of working in non-financial partnerships with national supermarket chains could be useful for other research groups looking to develop and implement supermarket studies in an efficient manner. Further evidence from real-life supermarket interventions is necessary to identify sustainable strategies that can improve population diet and maintain necessary commercial outcomes.

A study on limited pre-sale strategy with consideration of consumer regret.

The effect of regret on consumers' purchasing behavior is more and more obvious. The limited pre-sale can make retailers with limited production capacity allocate two periods of stock effectively and increase their income. This paper considers the heterogeneous consumers with regret behavior in the market and constructs a model to study the retailer's optimal limited pre-sale strategy. The results show that the high price regret sensitivity negatively affects the higher price of the products in the pre-sale strategy, while the out-of-stock regret sensitivity negatively affects the retailer's profit When the production capacity is relatively low, the proportion of rational consumers is large and the high price regret sensitivity coefficient is small, the retailer should pre-sell at a limited discount and the lowest valuation, and the highest valuation is on sale, otherwise, it should be sold at a price slightly lower than the highest valuation, but when the capacity is very sufficient, the sensitive coefficient of stock-out regret is small and the proportion of rational consumers is small, the retailer should pre-sell at an unlimited premium, and a price slightly lower than the highest valuation of the pre-sale, the lowest valuation of the sale, or should be pre-sold at the highest valuation.

A Serial Mediation of Deceptive Discount Advertising Effects in Online Retailing.

Deception in online advertising is not uncommon. An example of deceptive advertising, sometimes used by online retailers to drive traffic to their Web sites, is omission in discount advertising. It is a tactic in which an important condition for a discount on a product or service is (purposefully) excluded when advertised online-only to reveal the initially excluded condition to consumers once they have reached the retailer's Web site. The purpose of this study was to examine how such omission in discount advertising influences purchase intention, and to what extent this effect is mediated by perceived retailer ethics and attitude toward the online retailer. To test our hypotheses, we conducted an experiment (N = 117) with a single-factor (omission in discount advertising: omission vs. control) between-subjects design. Perceived retailer ethics and attitude toward the online retailer were included as serial mediators. The results showed that omission in discount advertising negatively affected purchase intention. Furthermore, this effect was mediated by perceived retailer ethics and attitude toward the retailer, whereby participants who were exposed to the omission advertisement judged the retailer's ethics more negatively and consequently had a more negative attitude toward the retailer. This, indirectly, decreased purchase intention. This study provides evidence for a novel and parsimonious framework explaining the effect of omission in discount advertising on purchase intention, through perceived retailer ethics and attitude toward the online retailer, which is relevant for both theory and practice.

How do the carbon emission trading prices affect the financing decision of the supply chain considering carbon neutrality?

This paper considers a supply chain formed by a manufacturer with constrained capital and a retailer with sufficient capital. By using the Stackelberg game theory, we discuss the manufacturer's and retailer's optimization decisions for bank financing, zero-interest early payment financing, and in-house factoring financing under both normal and carbon neutrality scenarios. In the carbon neutrality scenario, numerical analysis shows that improving the efficiency of emission reduction drives manufacturers to switch from external to internal financing methods. The impact degree of green sensitivity on the supply chain's profit depends on the carbon emission trading prices. In the framework of green sensitivity of products and emission reduction efficiency, manufacturers' financing decisions are affected by carbon emission trading prices rather than by whether emissions exceed the standards or not. When the price is higher, internal financing is easier to obtain, whereas the space for external financing is constrained.

Fresh keeping decision and coordination of fresh agricultural products supply chain under carbon cap-and-trade.

Considering the carbon emissions caused by the fresh-keeping of fresh agricultural products, this paper studied the rules of fresh-keeping decision-making in the two-echelon fresh agricultural product supply chain led by suppliers under the carbon cap-and-trade policy. In addition, we designed two contracts, cost-sharing contract and two-part pricing contract, to coordinate the supplier's fresh-keeping decision and the supply chain's revenue. The results show that: whether the carbon cap-and-trade policy is implemented or not, the higher the consumer's preference for freshness and the lower the price sensitivity coefficient of consumers, the more favorable it is for suppliers to improve their fresh-keeping efforts. Under the implementation of carbon cap-and-trade policy, suppliers' fresh-keeping efforts are only related to the carbon transaction price, not the carbon cap; the higher the carbon transaction price, the less the supplier's fresh-keeping efforts, but the more the supplier's income; the smaller the cost coefficient of carbon emission reduction and the larger the coefficient of carbon emission reduction, the more favorable it is for suppliers to increase their fresh-keeping efforts; both cost-sharing contract and two-part pricing contract can coordinate the supply chain of fresh agricultural products, but they have different application scope and coordination effect. These conclusions are of great significance to the operation and management of fresh agricultural products suppliers, the improvement of consumers' quality of life and the protection of ecological environment under carbon cap-and-trade.

Effects of COVID-19 outbreak in pricing and collaboration of a health-social dual-channel supply chain.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected most aspects of product supply and consumer behaviors and led to transformations in the supply chain. The COVID-19 pandemic and the requirements to reduce its prevalence have led many people to shop online and encouraged many manufacturers to sell their products online. In this study, a manufacturer, who intends to possess an online sales channel, and a retailer, who has an in-person sales channel, are considered. Then, pricing strategies and collaboration mechanisms between them in the health-social dual-channel supply chain are investigated. This study is developed in three models, including centralized, decentralized, and collaborated under Stackelberg game, whereas the optimal price of products in each channel, level of implementation of health and safety protocols in retailers, advertising level, and status of online shopping performance are obtained for improving customer trust. Moreover, the demand is represented as a function of selling prices of products in online and in-person shops, compliance level of health protocols, level of online shopping performance, and advertising in health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the centralized model provides more profit for the manufacturer, the collaborated model provides the highest profit for the retailer. Thus, since the supply chain profit of centralized and collaborated models is close, the collaboration model is the best option for members in this situation. Sensitivity analysis is finally performed to evaluate the impact of key parameters, and then according to obtained results, some management insights are suggested for the dual-channel supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Does Environmental Education Always Contribute to Remanufacturing Supply Chain Development?

Remanufacturing, as an effective way to save resources and alleviate environmental pollution, has gradually become a sustainable practice. Environmental education contributes to the development of remanufacturing by increasing the number of consumers willing to purchase remanufactured products (RPs). However, the incumbent manufacturer usually has limited remanufacturing capability together with yield uncertainty, making a third-party remanufacturer (3PR) an alternate channel choice. This study develops an analytical model to examine the effects of environmental education on a retailer's choice of remanufacturing channels under in-store competition. Results show that consumer environmental education has the potential to significantly improve the retailer and supply chain profits, and temperate environmental education is always desirable for 3PR. The introduction of 3PR benefits the consumer when the retailer's remanufacturing technology level is low. Furthermore, when the environmental impact of defective RPs is relatively high, and environmental education is temperate, selecting a 3PR will enhance environmental sustainability. This study also shows that 3PR can help achieve a win-win situation when environmental education and consumer acceptance of RPs are both in a certain range.

Point and interval forecasting for carbon trading price: a case of 8 carbon trading markets in China.

Carbon trading price (CTP) prediction accuracy is critical for both market participants and policymakers. As things stand, most previous studies have only focused on one or a few carbon trading markets, implying that the models' universality is insufficient to be validated. By employing a case study of all carbon trading markets in China, this study proposes a hybrid point and interval CTP forecasting model. First, the Pearson correlation method is used to identify the key influencing factors of CTP. The original CTP data is then decomposed into multiple series using complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise. Following that, the sample entropy method is used to reconstruct the series to reduce computational time and avoid overdecomposition. Following that, a long short-term memory method optimized by the Adam algorithm is established to achieve the point forecasting of CTP. Finally, the kernel density estimation method is used to predict CTP intervals. On the one hand, the results demonstrate the proposed model's validity and superiority. The interval prediction model, on the other hand, reflects the uncertainty of market participants' behavior, which is more practical in the operation of carbon trading markets.

Coordinating a three-level contract farming supply chain with option contracts considering risk-averse farmer and retailer.

We considered a three-level contract farming supply chain comprising a risk-averse farmer, a risk-neutral supplier, and a risk-averse retailer. The farmer plants and grows fresh agricultural products with yield uncertainty, the supplier is the leader of the supply chain and the designer of the contracts, and the retailer sells processed products with random demand. Under CVaR criterion, this paper discusses three option contracts between the supplier and the retailer, as well as wholesale price contracts or replenishment cost-sharing contracts between the supplier and the farmer. Results show that when the farmer is risk-neutral, option contracts with or without replenishment cost-sharing contracts can maximize the total profit and increase the profits of all members simultaneously. When the farmer and the retailer are risk-averse, only option contracts with replenishment cost-sharing contracts can ensure supply chain full coordination and Pareto improvement by adjusting the option parameters and making the farmer's sharing ratio equal to his risk aversion coefficient. Moreover, through numerical analysis, we discovered that the interval of the Pareto improvement decreases with the retailer's risk aversion coefficient and the quantity loss rate, and increases with the farmer's risk aversion coefficient. The supplier will not be able to increase his own profits when the loss rate is excessively large. Therefore, the leader should consider the risk aversion degree of all parties and the quantity loss rate of fresh agricultural products before choosing contracts.

Research the effect of anticipated regret and fairness concerns on retailer-led supply chain.

Considering the consumer's anticipated regret caused by price discount, the impact of anticipated regret and manufacturers' fairness concerns on pricing and profits is explored, and a revenue-sharing contract to optimize the profits of supply chain is explored. In centralized decision-making model with manufacturer's fairness neutrality and retailer-led decentralized decision-making model with the manufacturer's fairness concerns, numerical simulation and model comparison is used to analyse regret sensitivity coefficient, consumer heterogeneity, the fairness concern coefficient on pricing decisions and profit coordination. Our results reveal that consumer's anticipated regret has a negative impact on product prices, retailer's profit and manufacturer's profit. Manufacturer's fairness concerns also increase product price and reduce profits of all parties. Retailer-led supply chain can share the revenue to achieve Pareto optimization. When formulating promotional strategies, retailers should consider the characteristics of anticipated regrets of consumers.

The impact of cross-shareholding under different power structures considering green investment and green marketing.

Cross-shareholding has played an important role in strengthening strategic synergy among enterprises, but its impact on the green development of enterprises is unclear. In this paper, we construct an analytical framework that includes a manufacturer and a retailer to explore the impact of cross-shareholdings under different leaderships on green supply chain operational decisions and profits, in which the manufacturer invests in green technologies and the retailer conducts green marketing. By constructing and solving the game model of manufacturer-led and retailer-led before and after cross-shareholding, it is found that after cross-shareholding, the product's green level and the retailers' marketing level are improved. For supply chain leaders, cross-shareholdings always increase their profits. Only when the follower holds the leader's shares no more than a certain value, cross-shareholding will increase the total profit of the supply chain. In addition, we obtain the optimal decisions and profits of the supply chain in the integrated situation and design two-part pricing contracts to achieve cross-shareholding supply chain coordination. The results of this paper can provide theoretical guidance and decision support for enterprises interested in using cross-shareholding to improve supply chain performance.