Study On Operational Strategies Of Supply Chain With Consumer’s Low-Carbon Preference

In the face of increasingly serious environmental and ecological problems and increasing consumer environmental awareness,how to effectively reduce carbon emissions has become a key issue for organizations such as governments,enterprises and scientific research institutions.Faced with profound external social pressures and internal economic motives,companies not only need to choose appropriate operation strategies,i.e.,green product R&D,production and sales,but also need to build consensus with up-and downstream supply chains and implement reasonable marketing strategies together.Consequently,it constitutes an important connotation of low-carbon supply chain management that research optimal operation strategies based on the economic,environmental and social principles with the purpose of sustainable development.Therefore,it is of great theoretical significance and practical application value to study the optimal decision-making of low-carbon supply chains under the influence of consumers’ environmental preferences and the government’s low carbon policy.Based on the relevant research and practical experience at home and abroad,this paper studies the decision-making problems of low-carbon supply chain from the perspective of consumers’ low-carbon preference and its dynamic change by using theoretical analysis,numerical simulation and other research methods.Firstly,the paper incorporates the consumer’s low-carbon product preference into product demand function,and formulates the decision models of duopoly low-carbon supply chain considering the different market power structures of manufacturers.Secondly,considering consumer’s dual preference of channel and low-carbon in the e-commerce environment,the paper studies the decision problems of dual channel low-carbon supply chain.Thirdly,considering consumer’s dynamic perception of product’s low-carbon properties and the dynamic changes of product’s goodwill,the paper studies the decision problems of dual channel low-carbon supply chain under dynamic framework with consideration of different advertising strategies.Finally,considering the impact of the government’s low-carbon policy on the supply chain operation mechanism,the paper studies the decision-making problems of dual channel low-carbon supply chain under the dynamic framework.(1)Considering the impacts of consumer’s low-carbon preference and green manufacturer’s market power on the optimal operation strategies of duopoly low-carbon supply chain that consists of a green manufacturer,a traditional manufacturer and a common retailer,the paper studies the equilibrium decisions of the supply chain in three sub-game models: i.e.,Bertrand,green-manufacturer-oriented Stackelberg sub-game and traditional-manufacturer-oriented Stackelberg sub-game,in the scheme of manufacturer-retailer Stackelberg game.Then,the paper analyses the impact of cost competition and green competition on the optimal strategies and profits of duopoly low-carbon supply chain by sensitivity analysis.The research results show that in the three sub-game models the low-carbon level of product,manufacturer’s marginal profit and total profit of supply chain increase with the coefficient of consumer’s low-carbon preference but decrease with the coefficient of green product cost,in contrast to the retailer’s marginal profit and total profit.The results also suggest that the efficiency of green competitive advantage is better than the first-mover advantage.On the perspective of profit maximization,the traditional manufacturer should always be the follower,while the green manufacturer should be the leader only when consumer’s low-carbon preference is relatively high or the green production cost is relatively low.(2)To identify the difference of carbon footprints between online and offline channels,the paper introduces the concept of channel sustainability to represent the carbon footprints of a channel.Considering consumer’s channel sustainability preference and channel preference,the paper formulates the decision model of dual-channel low-carbon supply chain and obtains the optimal operation strategies under centralized and decentralized model.The research results show that the optimal channel sustainability of online channel is greater than offline channel when consumer’s channel sustainability preference is fixed.What’s more,the effect of double marginalization weakens with the cross-channel sustainability coefficient increasing,while the effect of double marginalization strengthens with consumer’s retail channel preference increasing.(3)In the face of consumer’s dynamic perception of product’s low-carbon properties,the paper formulates the differential equation of consumer’s perception of low-carbon product.Then,with consideration of the impact of low-carbon advertising and consumer’s dynamic perception of low-carbon product on product’s goodwill,the paper studies the optimal dynamic strategies of dual channel low-carbon supply chain with the consistent price policy under the centralized model,decentralized model with competitive advertising strategy and decentralized model with supportive advertising strategies respectively.The research results show that the optimal level of low-carbon,the optimal level of online and offline advertising in the centralized model are greater than the optimal strategies in the decentralized models.Under the decentralized models,the optimal sale price,the optimal level of low-carbon,the optimal level of online advertising in the competitive advertising strategy is equal to these optimal strategies in the supportive advertising strategy.What’s more,the supportive advertising strategy enables the dual-channel low-carbon supply chain to achieve Pareto improvement and the optimal level of offline advertising is greater than in the competitive advertising strategy.(4)Facing the influence of government’s low-carbon policy,with the consideration of manufacturer’s carbon emission reduction effort and the impact of low-carbon advertise on product’s goodwill,the paper studies the dynamic operation strategies of dual-channel low-carbon supply chain under three different scenarios respectively,i.e.,without government regulation,with government regulation but without advertising-cost-sharing contract,and with government regulation and advertising-cost-sharing contract.The research results show that government regulation will stimulate the manufacturer to carbon emission reduction,contributing to the increase of product goodwill,but will not influence the retailer’s advertise strategy.The existence of government low-carbon policy will always increase retailer’s profit and increase manufacturer’s profit when the subsidy rate is relatively low.What’s more,the advertising-cost-sharing contract will enable the dual-channel low-carbon supply chain achieve Pareto improvement.