The optimal product-line design and incentive mechanism in a supply chain with customer environmental awareness

Abstract

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>Due to the increasing awareness of sustainable development, the manufacturer's product-line design gets wide attention. Nowadays, the traditional manufacturer that produces non-green products is considering whether to introduce upgraded green products. This paper studies the manufacturer's optimal product-line design considering the quality difference between non-green and green products. Besides, our model also investigates the difference in unit production cost, green research and development (R&D) investment, and market segmentation. The results show that, from the manufacturer's perspective, producing green products is a better choice when non-green products are of low quality. In addition, the retailer is always inclined to sell green products. Further, the consumers' preference for non-green and green products is divided. And the consumer surplus under different product-line designs is analysed. Finally, two contracts are proposed and compared to encourage the manufacturer to produce green products.</p>