Complexity Analysis of Pricing, Service Level, and Emission Reduction Effort in an e-Commerce Supply Chain Under Different Power Structures

Abstract

This paper constructs an e-commerce supply chain (ECSC) that includes one e-commerce platform and one low-carbon manufacturer. Based on bounded rationality, the complexity of pricing, service level, and emission reduction effort decisions in an ECSC is investigated in two scenarios: horizontal Nash (HN) game and long-term platform Stackelberg (LPS) game. Finally, the effects of different adjustment speeds and critical parameters on decision variables, profits, and system stability are analyzed through various numerical simulations. The study revealed that the price adjustment parameters have a more noticeable impact on the stability and profit of ECSC in both scenarios. It is interesting that the chaos caused by the adjustment speed of the platform’s decisions leads to a decrease in the platform’s profits. However, it causes continuous fluctuations in low-carbon manufacturers’ profits. In the HN game, when the increase of critical parameters is beneficial to low-carbon manufacturers, the system’s stability will decrease. In addition, the system’s stability in the LPS game is only affected by the adjustment speed of the platform’s decisions. By comparison, we find that the adjustment of the platform’s price plays a vital role in the ECSC under different power structures. Finally, the adaptive adjustment mechanism is used to control the chaos caused by the price of the platform in the ECSC system.