Channel Selection Strategy Of OTC Drug Supply Chain Considering Health Insurance Policy

Since our country relaxed the drug Internet transaction policy and allowed OTC drugs(over-the-counter drugs)to be sold in online channels,the pharmaceutical e-commerce industry has developed rapidly and attracted much attention.The trend of pharmaceutical e-commerce has prompted traditional OTC drug manufacturers to start thinking about whether to open online sales channels? In view of the particularity of drugs,the operation of OTC drug supply chain has to consider the impact of medical insurance policies on it;at the same time,in supply chain research,consumer heterogeneity and fair preference theory are also worth studying.Therefore,this paper takes the OTC drug supply chain under the medical insurance policy as the research object,considers the introduction of two factors of consumer heterogeneity and fairness preference,and discusses the influence of each factor on the channel selection strategy of the OTC drug supply chain.This paper constructs a Stackelberg game model with OTC drug manufacturers as leaders and brick-and-mortar drug retailers as followers.First,taking the OTC drug supply chain under the medical insurance policy as the research object,considering the influence of consumer heterogeneity on it,the study found that the existence of consumer heterogeneity and the medical insurance policy have formed a superimposed effect,which means that when consumers When the heterogeneity is high,it is difficult for manufacturers to obtain more benefits through online sales channels even if the proportion of consumers out-of-pocket is high.Under the dual incentives of consumers’ willingness and medical insurance subsidies,manufacturers are more inclined to not open the Internet.Sales channels.On the basis of the above research,this paper also introduces the theory of fairness preference,and analyzes the influence of the three situations that only the manufacturer has fairness preference,only the retailer has fairness preference,and both parties have fairness preference on the channel selection decision of OTC drug supply chain.Findings: First,when only the manufacturer has fair preference,with the increase of the fair preference coefficient of the manufacturer,it is always beneficial for the manufacturer not to open online sales channels,and it is always beneficial for the retailers to open online sales channels.When the heterogeneity of consumers is low,the demand for online sales channels increases,and manufacturers tend to open online sales channels for higher efficiency,and vice versa.Second,when only the retailer has fairness preference,regardless of whether the manufacturer opens online sales channels,the manufacturer’s utility decreases with the increase of the retailer’s fairness preference coefficient,while the retailer’s utility decreases with the retailer’s fairness preference coefficient increases and increases.When the heterogeneity of consumers is high,manufacturers tend to open online sales channels to obtain higher efficiency if consumers pay a high proportion of their own.sales channels;and vice versa.Third,when both parties have fairness preferences,regardless of whether the manufacturer opens online sales channels,the retailer’s fairness preference is always detrimental to the manufacturer’s utility,and the manufacturer’s fairness preference is always detrimental to the retailer’s utility.At this time,consumer heterogeneity has little effect on manufacturers’ channel selection,and manufacturers can always obtain higher efficiency by choosing to open online sales channels;only when the proportion of consumer heterogeneity is extremely high,if consumers pay the proportion themselves Lower,manufacturers tend not to open online sales channels,and vice versa.Finally,on the basis of the above theoretical research,this paper conducts a case analysis on the background of Chongqing Taiji Industrial Group for practical problems.Through model research and mapping analysis,the best decision is drawn up for the enterprise,aiming to provide relevant information for the decision-making of similar enterprises’ s reference.