Impact of risk aversion on two-echelon supply chain systems with carbon emission reduction constraints

Abstract

This study examines a two-echelon supply chain consisting of two competing manufacturers and one retailer that has the channel power, in which one manufacturer is engaged in sustainable technology to curb carbon emissions under the cap-and-trade regulation while the other one operates its business as usual in a traditional manner. Two different supply chain configurations concerning risk attributes of the agents are considered, that is, (ⅰ) two risk-neutral manufacturers with one risk-averse retailer; and (ⅱ) two risk-averse manufacturers with one risk-neutral retailer. Under the mean-variance framework, we use a retailer-leader game optimization approach to study operational decisions of these two systems. Specifically, optimal operational decisions of the agents are established in closed-form expressions and the corresponding profits and carbon emissions are assessed. Numerical experiments are conducted to analyze the impact of risk aversion of the underlying supply chains. The results show that each risk-averse agent would benefit from a low scale risk aversion. Further, low carbon emissions could be attainable if risk aversion scale of the underlying manufacturer is small or moderate. In addition, the carbon emissions might increase when risk aversion of the traditional manufacturer or the retailer is of small or moderate scale.