Abstract
To improve carbon efficiency for an urban logistics service system composed of a third-party logistics service provider (3PL) and an e-business enterprise, a low-carbon operation game between them was studied. Considering low carbon technology investment cost and sales expansion effect of low carbon level, profit functions for both players were constituted. Based on their different bargaining capabilities, in total, five types of game scenarios were designed. Through analytical solution, Nash Equilibria under different scenarios were obtained. By analyzing these equilibria, four major propositions were given, in which some key variables and the system performance indexes were compared. Results show that the best system yields could only be achieved under the fully cooperative situation. Limited cooperation only for carbon emission reduction does not benefit the system performance improvement. E-business enterprise-leading game’s performance overtook 3PL-leading ones.
Highlights
The world greenhouse gas emission has been increasing rapidly in the past several decades
Similar to relations among members of supply chains, in such a service chain composed of an e-business firm and a 3PL, game theory is an appropriate means to analyze their decision interactions and system balance
The relation between the investment cost and low carbon levels takes on higher order function relations
Summary
The world greenhouse gas emission has been increasing rapidly in the past several decades. When outsourcing booms in the urban logistics sector, for an e-business firm facing more carbon-sensitive customers, how should it achieve its lower footprint goals? Similar to relations among members of supply chains, in such a service chain composed of an e-business firm and a 3PL, game theory is an appropriate means to analyze their decision interactions and system balance. Debabrata et al studied the games between one manufacturer and one retailer with different market power in green efforts of supply chains [8]. Previous research seldom realized the low carbon effort motivation for the service system composed of an urban 3PL and an e-business enterprise. Such an effort could benefit all members of the system.
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