A study on supply chain investment decision-making and coordination in the Big Data environment

Abstract

In the Big Data environment, aims of enterprises investing in Big Data are to gain Big Data information (BDI). To study the decision-making issues of BDI investment and its effects on supply chain coordination, a supply chain with one retailer and one manufacturer was chosen. Meanwhile, considering a company owned the internal BDI and the external BDI, the market demand function was revised and four decision models were proposed from a new perspective. Then, the effects of BDI investment on supply chain members’ benefits under the four models were analyzed and an effectively coordination tactic was presented for achieving supply chain coordination. Results indicated when the investment cost could face a certain threshold, the retailer or the manufacturer investing in BDI could increase its benefits. Meanwhile, there existed “positive externalities” for other supply chain members. In addition, after supply chain members investing in BDI together, revenue-sharing contract could coordinate the supply chain effectively. This article provided a theoretical guidance or a decision basis for companies investing in BDI, meanwhile, it had reference values for supply chain coordination after investing in BDI.