Fresh Food Dual-Channel Supply Chain Considering Consumers’ Low-Carbon and Freshness Preferences

Abstract

Due to growing concerns for environmental problems and food quality, consumers pay more attention to the carbon emission and freshness of fresh food. The booming e-commerce also accelerates the development of the dual-channel supply chain. In the dual-channel supply chain of fresh food, the carbon emission and freshness of fresh food are becoming important factors affecting consumers’ purchase demand. This paper focuses on the optimal decision of carbon emission reduction and pricing, which is investigated by a Stackelberg game-theoretic approach in three dual-channel supply chain sales models (retailer dual channel, producer dual channel, and mixed dual channel). A two-stage fresh food supply chain system composed of a producer and a retailer is explored. The sensitivity analysis and the comparison of three dual-channel models are carried out. The results show the following: (1) the sales price, carbon emission reduction, market demand, producer’s profit, retailer’s profit, and supply chain’s profit of fresh food under the three dual-channel supply chains show the same change on different levels of consumers’ low-carbon preference coefficient and freshness level, respectively; (2) the optimal decision of carbon emission reduction and pricing, demand, and profit of the three dual-channel models need to be determined according to the value of consumers’ purchasing preferences for the retailer’s offline channel. The paper gives some enlightenment to the decision-making members in the fresh dual-channel supply chain.

Impact of carbon emission difference on the dual-channel fresh produce supply chain with capital constraints

“…The implementation of climate change and lowcarbon policies has increased consumers' environmental awareness. They consider the environmental impact of products when purchasing them (Xie et al, 2021). Consumers prefer sustainable brands.…”

Bridging the research-practice gap in supply chain risks induced by the COVID-19

“…Xie et al. built a dual-channel supply chain for fresh food that considers consumers' low-carbon and fresh preferences (Xie et al. , 2021).…”

“…Yan et al studied the dual-channel supply chain composed of retailers and suppliers, and discussed the optimal decisions of supply chain participants under the decentralized decision-making with no demand interruption and demand interruption (Yan et al, 2021). Xie et al built a dual-channel supply chain for fresh food that considers consumers' low-carbon and fresh preferences (Xie et al, 2021). Aiming at the supply chain interruption, Kang et al discussed the impact of insured manufacturers in the dual-channel supply chain on the expected profit of the supply chain interruption (Kang et al, 2020).…”

Horizontal and vertical demand forecast information sharing in a distributive dual‐channel supply chain considering the manufacturer's product quality improvement

“…Ji et al (2017) investigate the carbon emission and channel selection decisions of supply chain members under the cap-and-trade mechanism and find that the introduction of an online channel is beneficial if consumers' sensitivity to low-carbon products is sufficiently high. Xie et al (2021) study the pricing and carbon emission reduction in a dual-channel supply chain, including retailer dual-channel, producer dual-channel, and hybrid dual-channel structures. Li et al (2015) study the influence of the direct marketing channel on a risk-averse retailer under asymmetric demand information and show that the impact of the manufacturer's encroachment depends on the degree of risk aversion of the retailer.…”