Optimal channel selection of remanufacturing firms with considering asymmetric information in platform economy

Abstract

With the rapid development of e-commerce platforms, and considering that online return rate is relatively high and third-party stores on e-commerce platforms need to adopt third-party logistics, thus remanufacturing firms face the challenge of deciding whether to enter e-commerce platforms. To address this challenge, our paper considers a remanufacturing firm, an e-commerce platform, and a third-party logistics provider. Moreover, according to whether the remanufacturing firm enters the platform and whether the information is symmetrical, we develop three theoretical models: Model NP (the firm doesn’t enter platform), Model YP (the firm enters platform with symmetric information) and Model YA (the firm enters platform with asymmetric information). Some main insights are obtained. We find that whether remanufacturing firms should enter the platform depends not only on the annual service fee charged by the platform but also on the carbon tax price set by the government. Interestingly, improved consumers’ satisfaction with online remanufactured products is not necessarily conducive to enhancing the willingness of remanufacturing firms to enter e-commerce platforms. Finally, we find that when the production quantity constraint of the remanufactured products is not binding, if the actual production cost of remanufactured products is high and consumers’ satisfaction with offline remanufactured products is relatively low, information disclosure will benefit remanufacturing firms, however, when the production quantity constraint of the remanufactured products is binding, information disclosure has no impact on the remanufacturing firms’ profits and operational decisions.