| Community group buying has gained popularity as a new retail mode in the Internet plus era due to its competitive pricing versus traditional supermarkets and quick turnaround times versus traditional e-commerce.Through its distinctive semi-prepurchase mode,community group buying,particularly during the COVID-19 outbreak,helped consumers buy fresh produce conveniently and without interaction,which also helped the community group buying mode of fresh produce restore its appeal.The largest challenge facing the operation of fresh produce community group buying is how to maintain popularity and keep customers now that the overall COVID-19 in China has reached a low-level pandemic stage.Based on this,the thesis collates relevant research literature from three perspectives: community group buying,fresh produce supply chain and supply chain coordination contract,to understand the pertinent theoretical content and research progress,with the aim of providing theoretical support for the development of this study.However,there is little existing literature on pricing and contract coordination related to the three-tier supply chain of community group buying in the fresh produce sector.Therefore,the thesis introduces the four main factors affecting the total demand of the fresh produce community group buying market,namely the price of fresh produce,the level of freshness maintenance effort,the service level and the level of promotional effort of the community pickup shops,into the decision-making system and attempts to coordinate the three-tier fresh produce community group buying supply chain consisting of fresh produce suppliers,group buying e-commerce platforms and community pick-up shops.First of all,the organization and functioning of the fresh produce supply chain under community group buying mode are described.Next,building the corresponding centralized and decentralized models,and solving the optimal decisions and profits of each model.Then,the revenue-sharing and cost-sharing contract is designed on this basis to coordinate the community group buying supply chain of fresh produce.Finally,the models’ primary parameters’ sensitivity is examined using the numerical example,which validates the accuracy of the models’ results and the effectiveness of contract coordination.The results of the thesis show that:(1)the commission ratio of community pick-up shops in the decentralized model affects the optimal decisions and profits of members of the fresh produce community group buying supply chain.(2)Under the centralized and decentralized modes,the freshness sensitivity coefficient,service level sensitivity coefficient,and promotion effort sensitivity coefficient,respectively,are positively correlated with the optimal decisions and profits made by the fresh produce community group buying supply chain.(3)The revenuesharing and cost-sharing combination contract can achieve the coordination and Pareto improvement of the fresh produce community group purchase supply chain.The findings of the thesis can further enrich and improve the theoretical foundation of community group buying supply chains of fresh produce and provide management insights for the decision-making of supply chain members and the healthy and stable development of the industry. |
