Operational decisions of live-streaming platform supply chain based on control power: considering the dual preferences of consumers

Abstract

As the problem of live streaming with goods ‘overturned’ has also emerged, it is crucial for supply chain members to make optimal decisions to maintain long-term cooperation relationship. Based on this background, we construct a new supply chain structure composed of a fresh food supplier, an online celebrity live-streaming base (OCLB) and a platform channel, and establish three game-theoretic models: the centralised decision model (CDM), two decentralised decision models (DDMs) led by fresh food supplier (P-S-L model) and OCLB (P-L-S model) to further explore the optimal decisions. The results show that, when consumers have higher dual preferences of freshness and live-streaming recommendation level, in the P-S-L model, it is in the best interest of the supply chain as a whole to pursue ‘neutral’ control power and choose a ‘moderate pricing and decent quality’ strategy, but in the P-L-S model, the OCLB as the dominant party can pursue higher control power, increase the selling price, or relax its preservation technology upgrading program, which may compensate for the loss of high preservation costs. This study follows the popular topic of live-streaming with goods, opens up new ideas to improve the high profitability of supply chain enterprises.