Improve the Sustainability of Supply Chain: the Role of Carbon Abatement and Blockchain Technology

Abstract

This paper constructs a sustainable supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a retail platform. This paper explores the manufacturer’s decision of whether to develop green technology to reduce carbon emission and the platform’s option of whether to adopt blockchain technology to disclose information. According to the selling format in the supply chain (i.e., reselling or agency selling format), this study divides the research into two scenarios: Scenarios R and A. Through analyses, the paper first finds that two parameters play decisive roles in the manufacturer’s and the platform’s decisions: the consumer’s acceptance of product and the consumer’s environmental sensitivity. As the consumer’s acceptance of product increases, the supply chain members’ mode preferences change from Mode RT (Mode AT) to Mode RB (Mode AB). And the increase of the consumer’s environmental sensitivity leads the supply chain members less likely to take actions (reducing carbon emission or disclosing information). Specifically, this paper discovers that the manufacturer’s and the platform’s mode preferences are always analogous with each other. Next, this paper finds that the two decisive parameters’ (i.e., the consumer’s acceptance of product and the consumer’s environmental sensitivity) joint impact on the platform’s optimal decision is more drastic than on the manufacturer’s. Finally, the selling format in the supply chain interacts with the consumer’s acceptance of product exerting influence on the supply chain members’ optimal decisions.