Development Of Supply Chain Research Articles

Supply chain strategy of adopting blockchain in post-sale customer care outsourcing in a competitive environment

Post-sale customer care (PSCC) outsourcing is an effective supply chain strategy to reduce costs, but traditional outsourcing methods cannot ensure consumers’ belief in PSCC quality, harming the firms’ competitive strategy. To ensure consumer satisfaction through transparency, this article examines evolving supply chain strategies of leveraging blockchain to outsource PSCC operations of competing manufacturers to third-party agents. Based on consumers’ beliefs and blockchain adoption cost, manufacturers have two choices; to outsource the PSCC operations with or without blockchain, resulting in multiple outsourcing strategies. Results show that the consumers’ belief in one manufacturer’s outsourcing strategy has detrimental effects on the stance of another manufacturer. Moreover, the blockchain cost and consumers’ beliefs dictate the manufacturers’ strategies for PSCC outsourcing, resulting in a ‘quadruple zone of strategic fit’, where both manufacturers adopt blockchain or neither adopt blockchain, or one adopts while the other does not. Interestingly, despite the low or zero blockchain cost, both manufacturers will outsource without blockchain if their traditional business models satisfy consumers. The extended analysis reveals contradictory results that manufacturers should outsource more often with blockchain to facilitate consumers when a long-term warranty is offered, or the product has a higher failure rate, even though, overall these factors increase costs.

How Does Supply Chain Resilience Affect Supply Chain Performance? The Mediating Effect of Sustainability

In recent years, interruption or failure events have occurred due to frequent natural disasters, the outbreak of COVID-19, policy environment turbulence, an increasingly complex business environment, and the increasingly fragile global supply chain. This has reduced the efficiency of supply chains and customer service quality and increased operating costs, creating new requirements for supply chain flexibility and sustainability. When investigating 21 companies based on 200 questionnaires and a structural equation model analysis, the results showed that the elasticity of the supply chain for supply chain sustainability, economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environment sustainability has an obvious positive effect: supply chain sustainability has an obvious positive effect on supply chain performance. Supply chain resilience has no direct positive effect on supply chain performance, but it has a strong indirect effect on supply chain performance under the mediating effect of supply chain sustainability. In view of this, in order to create sustainable supply chain development and improve the performances of supply chains, it is necessary to establish the awareness of risk prevention, root the risk culture in supply chain network organization, and improve supply chain resilience in multiple dimensions. Enterprises in the supply chain should continue to build their resilience and establish effective strategies to integrate supply chains. The intermediary role of sustainability in supply chains and of supply chain flexibility in supply chain performance shows the influence of economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable angles, such as the implementation of supply chain management, the maximization of the interests of the whole supply chain, improving the ability of supply chain enterprises to innovate and develop, establishing customer awareness, and enhancing humanistic ideas. Dynamic selection of supply chain partners while focusing on their green performance promotes the green development of supply chain enterprises.

Scoping Challenges and Opportunities Presented by COVID-19 for the Development of Sustainable Short Food Supply Chains

Over the past decades, short food supply chains attracted government and public support owing to their potential to mitigate some of the sustainability issues associated with the conventional globalized food supply system. The recent event of the coronavirus disease pandemic placed unprecedented pressure on food supply systems worldwide, and it constitutes a unique opportunity to evaluate the performance of food chains. Through a scoping review of the academic literature, this study provides a critical assessment of the implications of the pandemic on short food supply chains in multiple economies. Following the guidelines outlined in the PRISMA-ScR framework, the SCOPUS and ISI Web of Science databases were searched for the academic literature on the topic. The results of the review indicate that, besides the direct effects of the pandemic, the indirect effects resulting from public policies implemented to contain the spread of the virus affected all relevant dimensions of sustainability. Moreover, the consequences of the pandemic were more disruptive in the short food chains of low-income countries than in those of high-income countries. The main challenges and opportunities for the sustainable development of short food supply chains are identified, and recommendations for future research are outlined.

Enterprises’ decision-making under government green subsidy and information asymmetry

Environmental issues have gradually become the focus of public attention. With the increase of consumers’ awareness in environmental protection, the green development of supply chain has become the mainstream trend in the foreseeable future. At this point, government subsidy in research and development becomes a non-negligible external factor in the greening of the supply chain. In order to explore the influencing mechanism of government subsidy on the supply chain under different decision situations, this paper initially constructs a model with a leading manufacturer and a subsequent retailer and then explores the optimal decisions under centralized and decentralized decision-making. Furthermore, we simulate and validate the effects of government subsidy policies on the decisions of supply chain participants. The results show that government subsidy has a positive influence on green technology improvements in the supply chain, but the incomplete utilization of government subsidy funds under information asymmetry may significantly reduce the efficiency of policy. Under information asymmetry, the actual revenues of participants will be larger than the profits in information symmetry only when the percentage of misappropriation is relatively low. Additionally, information asymmetry will lead to a decline in social welfare and is more pronounced under centralized decision-making. Finally, we provide managerial and practical insights for the enterprise managers’ decisions.

Promising Technology Analysis and Patent Roadmap Development in the Hydrogen Supply Chain

Hydrogen energy, one of the energy sources of the future, represents a substantial issue which affects the industries and national technologies that will develop in the future. In order to utilize hydrogen energy, a hydrogen supply chain is required so that hydrogen can be processed and transported to vehicles. It is helpful for technology and policy development to analyze technologies necessary to charge the hydrogen energy generated into vehicles through the supply chain to discover technologies with high potential for future development. The purpose of this paper is to identify promising technologies required in storing, transporting, and charging vehicles generated by the hydrogen fuel supply chain. Afterward, the promising technologies identified are expected to help researchers set a direction in researching technologies and developing related policies. Therefore, we provide technology information that can be used promisingly in the future so that researchers in the related field can utilize it effectively. In this paper, data analysis is performed using related patents and research papers for technical analysis. Promising technologies that will be the core of the hydrogen fuel supply chain in the future were identified using the published patents and research paper database (DB) in Korea, the United States, Europe, China, and Japan. A text mining technique was applied to preprocess data, and then a generic topographic map (GTM) analysis discovered promising technologies. Then, a technology roadmap was identified by analyzing the promising technology derived from patents and research papers in parallel. In this study, through the analysis of patents and research papers related to the hydrogen supply chain, the development status of hydrogen storage/transport/charging technology was analyzed, and promising technologies with high potential for future development were found. The technology roadmap derived from the analysis can help researchers in the field of hydrogen research establish policies and research technologies.

Application of intelligent logistics inventory optimization algorithm based on digital supply chain

Abstract Inventory is the core link of enterprise operation and an essential resource for enterprises to occupy the market. Therefore, optimizing the control and management of inventory is a necessary measure for enterprises to maintain their core competitiveness. However, at present, the optimization of the enterprise’s inventory is basically still at the single inventory level, which seriously shortens the life cycle of the enterprise’s products and reduces the speed of the enterprise’s capital flow. Digital supply chain is the digitization of traditional supply chain services, which can change the traditional thinking of inventory control and management, break down the barriers between enterprises and modern logistics, and build a complete management system for enterprises. Smart logistics is a product of the new era, and it is also a product of the development of the digital supply chain. To this end, this paper proposes an inventory optimization algorithm based on digital supply chain and smart logistics. The algorithm is optimized on the basis of the original inventory optimization scheme, so that the improved algorithm can be more suitable for actual inventory management needs. The experimental results of this paper show that the improved new inventory optimization algorithm improves the comprehensive benefit by 39.1% on the original basis, which can effectively reduce the error in the actual use process.

Green Investment Decision and Coordination in a Retailer-Dominated Supply Chain Considering Risk Aversion

With the sustainable development of the global economy, environmental problems and the green economy are increasingly becoming points of concern for the community. However, the large amount of capital invested in green technology and the high price of green products have become the key problems hindering the development of a risk-averse green supply chain. In order to promote the supply chain to increase green investment level, improve the green degree of products, and reduce the impact of risk aversion on green investment, this paper studies a two-echelon green supply chain composed of a risk-averse manufacturer and a risk-neutral retailer, in which the retailer is the leader and the manufacturer is the follower. We construct the wholesale price contract model, cost-sharing contract model, and two-part contract model, respectively, and use the Optimization Theory and Methods to discuss the impact of the three contracts on the green degree, expected utility of supply chain, retail price, consumer surplus, and social welfare. The results show that in the cost-sharing contract, compared with the wholesale price contract, the green degree of the product has been significantly improved, but the expected utility of the supply chain enterprises cannot achieve Pareto improvement, and the higher consumer environmental awareness will cause the manufacturer’s expected utility to decline. In the two-part tariff contract, compared with the wholesale price contract, the expected utility of supply chain enterprises achieves Pareto improvement, and the green degree of products is the highest in the three contracts; more importantly, in the two-part contract, the product green degree, the retail price, and the expected utility of the supply chain are not related to the manufacturer’s risk aversion; meanwhile, the retail price in the two-part tariff is the lowest among the three contracts, and the consumer surplus and social welfare are the highest. Our main contribution is that the two-part contract eliminates the influence of the manufacturer’s risk aversion on the above decision variable and realizes the unification of manufacturers, retailers, consumers, and social benefits. Finally, this paper uses numerical examples to verify the above conclusions and then analyzes the sensitivity of the supply chain system.

Research on the High-Quality Development Path of the Cross-Border Agricultural Product Supply Chain between China and Central Asia

As a bridge and link between China and Central Asian countries, logistics infrastructure plays an important role in the process of forming a new development pattern of “dual circulation” and mutual promotion. Based on the panel data of Central Asian countries from 2010 to 2019, this paper uses random effect model to analyze the impact on the cross-border agricultural product supply chain between China and Central Asian countries. The results show that the logistics development level, railway transport connectivity, road transport connectivity, economic development level, market size, and common border of Central Asian countries positively affect the development level of the supply chain at different significance levels. Among them, the degree of railway transport connectivity has the greatest impact on the supply chain, followed by the common border, and then the level of logistics development. Moreover, the geographical advantage cannot be underestimated and it plays a positive role in promoting the high-quality development of cross-border agricultural product supply chain. China borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and the agricultural product import and export trade quota is significantly greater than that of other Central Asian countries. Based on the analysis, we propose to strengthen efforts to build a high-quality logistics system, build an efficient land transport network, and break through cross-border logistics congestion and difficulties.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Agricultural Products Supply in Shanghai

In Shanghai new crown during the outbreak of agricultural supply problems, for example, for regional quarantine crowd increased demand for agricultural products and agricultural products unsalable status detailed analysis, agricultural products problems in sales channels, transportation channels. And we put forward the development of digital supply chain, narrow information, pay attention to cold chain logistics transportation, relevant departments should improve the relevant system and strengthen supervision implementation, open the green channel, realize agricultural products to the community.

Impacts of CSR Undertaking Modes on Technological Innovation and Carbon-Emission-Reduction Decisions of Supply Chain

Taking a low-carbon supply chain composed of one producer and one retailer as the object, this paper explores the impacts of different corporate social responsibility (CSR)-undertaking-mode choices on the carbon-emission reduction and technological innovation decisions of the low-carbon supply chain. Under three CSR-undertaking modes, the optimal decisions of carbon-emission-reduction intensity and technological-innovation level of low-carbon supply chain are explored by using the Stackelberg game. Through a comparative analysis of the optimal equilibrium solutions, we found that, with the enhancement of CSR awareness of member firms, the carbon-emission-reduction intensity, technological innovation level, and product sales volume of the low-carbon supply chain under different CSR-undertaking modes are all improved, and the total profits and total welfare of the low-carbon supply chain are all increased. The carbon-emission-reduction intensity, technological innovation level, and product sales volume are all the highest under the mode of the retailer undertaking CSR, the second highest under the mode of the producer and retailer jointly undertaking CSR, and the lowest under the mode of the producer undertaking CSR mode. Therefore, under the background of technological innovation carried out by the producer, it is most conducive to promoting the development of low-carbon supply chain for the retailer to undertake social responsibility.

Dynamic Research on Three-Player Evolutionary Game in Waste Product Recycling Supply Chain System

Recycling channel construction plays an important role in the development of closed-loop supply chains. In particular, the emergence of online recycling channels has made up for the shortcomings of traditional recycling channels with poor information and limited markets. This paper constructs an evolutionary game model to investigate the cooperation between manufacturers and e-commerce platforms with government intervention or not. The result shows that whether an enterprise actively participates in the cooperative recycling depends on the actual cost of establishing the cooperative recycling system. Additionally, the government support and supervision will affect the actual cost of cooperation. When the actual cost of establishing a collaborative recovery system is very large, under the influence of government interventions, there will be two kinds of evolutionary results for enterprises, either with cooperation or not at the same time. On the contrary, when the actual cost is small or medium, both manufacturers and the platforms will choose to cooperate. Thus, government participation in a cooperative recovery system is the best strategic option.

Two‐level trout supply chain's economic efficiency analysis in Iran: Trout egg import subsidies role

AbstractIran has subsidised trout egg imports due to the lower feed conversion ratio of most imported trout eggs. However, the rainbow trout industry is divided on whether to allocate or abolish imported trout subsidies. The elimination of such support would lead to a three‐fold rise in the price of imported trout eggs (which are already more expensive than domestic trout eggs). Furthermore, the economic performance of the domestic trout supply chain over the imported trout supply chain remains yet to be clarified. The present study seeks to evaluate whether imported trout egg subsidies should be continued. Economic efficiency and network data envelopment analysis are used to evaluate the performance and role of subsidies in trout supply chains in Mazandaran, one of the largest trout farming provinces as a new case study in the aquaculture sector, in 2018. Farms that used imported trout eggs were found to have lower economic efficiency and higher dependence on import subsidies. Feed costs were identified to be the most important explanation for poor economic efficiency of trout production. Finally, the results reveal that the development of domestic trout propagation supply chains with integrated forward vertical structures could improve efficiency in the system. The re‐distribution of imported trout egg subsidies to fund feed cost reduction technologies could provide effective solutions to enhance economic efficiency, production sustainability and food security.

Large Raw Powder Production of Proton Conductor Electrolyte Materials for Hydrogen Production in Proton Conducting Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells

Solid oxide protonic electrolyte materials make protonic ceramic electrochemical cells (PCECs) viable to be operated at reduced temperatures (400~600 oC) because of its high conductivity and low activation energy. Barium zirconate and/or cerate are representative candidates which are mainly synthesized via conventional solid state reaction (SSR) method. Currently, synthesizing a pure phase of BZCYYb4411 in a large batch is still challenging with desired particle size for scaled manufacturing of PCECs. By optimizing and developing the SSR process, we successfully demonstrated large batch fabrication of these powders enabled by micro-sized mediates in the ball milling profiles. It can result in excellent powder quality including high phase purity, and favorable particle size and distribution with demonstration for subsequent cell manufacturing. More importantly, establishing such a protocol of kilogram-scale mass production by shortening the overall fabrication time and increasing the manufacturing efficiency has pronounced implication in the reduction of overall cost and carbon footprint, which is proven by Technoeconomic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). It represents a critical step for PCEC advancement with serious consideration on supply chain development.

Blockchain and Cloud Computing: A Way for The Development of Agriculture Sector and Food Supply Chain

Blockchain and Cloud Computing: A Way for The Development of Agriculture Sector and Food Supply Chain

LNG Bunkering Dynamics: An Exploratory Study for Türkiye

United Nations’ decarbonization and greenhouse gas reduction targets are to be achieved through the utilization of alternative fuels globally. LNG is a viable alternative for mitigating maritime transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. This study investigates LNG bunkering supply chain development in Türkiye. Semi-structured interviews with bunkering supply chain representatives were conducted to explore phenomena. The results of the research provided a pathway to establish a new supply chain for alternative marine fuels. The research findings indicate that collaboration and setting a regulatory framework are vital for supply chain development.

Model of operational planning of freight transportation by tram as part of a green logistics system

The introduction of environmentally friendly technologies is becoming increasingly necessary to combat global warm-ing and air pollution in cities. The concept of eco-logistics is seen as an effective approach to the management of materials and related flows in order to reduce environmental and economic damage to the environment. The sustaina-ble development of green supply chains is based on the use of environmentally friendly types of vehicles, reduction of energy and other resources consumption, optimization of transport and technological processes in delivery systems. As part of the development of green supply chain, it is proposed to transport goods by freight trams, which eliminates the need for heavy trucks in the city, improves traffic conditions and reduces the environmental impact of transport. The research was conducted for the city of Poznan. The distribution system of the city of Poznan operates in conditions of stochastic demand for deliveries from clients and the risk of lack of sufficient supplies in distribution centers. To take into account the specificity of the distribution system of cargo delivery in conditions of uncertainty and risk, a simula-tion model of the organization of the material flows within the transport system of the city of Poznan has been pro-posed. The result of simulation is the optimal assignment of clients to the distribution centers, as well as the value of total mileage with the load, which is a random variable. It is assumed that the random variable is distributed according to the normal distribution law. The results were calculated and compared for two variants, i.e. for constant demand and sufficient quantity of cargo in distribution centers, and for variable demand and uncertainty conditions, e.g. insuffi-cient cargo quantity in distribution centers. The purpose of the paper is to develop a simulation model for planning supplies of small consignments of goods by trams implementing green logistics concept with variable demand for transportation. After a short introduction of the problem, the literature review related to the concept of green logistics and requirements of transport and distribution system are presented in section 2. In section 3, the research problem and research methodology are described. Section 4 provides the results of assignment of clients to distribution centers. The paper ends with concluding remarks.

Research on Closed-Loop Supply Chain Decision Making of Power Battery Considering Subsidy Transfer under EPR System

With new energy vehicles becoming the mainstream of new vehicles sold, the surge in user ownership has triggered a wave of power battery scrapping, and the environmental problems caused by improper power battery recycling are becoming more serious. It is essential to promote the development of the closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) of power batteries effectively through government subsidies under the extended producer responsibility (EPR) regime. Combining the EPR system with the battery manufacturer as the leader and the vehicle manufacturer and the retailer as the subordinates, this paper constructs and solves four models of different CLSC subsidy objects and analyzes the pricing of power batteries by different subsidy objects by using the Stackelberg game, as well as the profit change and profit distribution ratio of each CLSC participant. The results of the study showed: (1) when the unit subsidy is limited, the government should subsidize all the CLSC subjects as much as possible. (2) When the government subsidizes the remanufacturing of power batteries, the recycling rate of power batteries is higher, and the benefits of the CLSC are better than those of subsidizing other actors. (3) The change in government subsidy objects will not affect the profit distribution ratio of CLSC, mainly because the subsidy not only improves the recovery rate, but also improves the profitability of each entity.

Computer Vision Algorithms, Remote Sensing Data Fusion Techniques, and Mapping and Navigation Tools in the Industry 4.0-Based Slovak Automotive Sector

The objectives of this paper, and the novelty brought to the topic of the Industry 4.0 manufacturing systems, are related to the integration of computer vision algorithms, remote sensing data fusion techniques, and mapping and navigation tools in the Slovak automotive sector. We conducted a thorough examination of Industry 4.0-based value and supply chains, clarifying how cyber-physical production systems operate in relation to collision avoidance technologies, environment mapping algorithms, and mobility simulation tools in network connectivity systems through vehicle navigation data. The Citroen C3 and Peugeot 208 automobiles are two examples of high-tech products whose worldwide value and supply chain development trends were examined in this study by determining countries and their contributions to production. The fundamental components of the research—statistical analysis and visual analysis—were utilized in conjunction with a variety of syntheses, comparisons, and analytical methodologies. A case study was developed using PSA Group SVK data. The graphical analysis revealed that Slovakia offers the second-highest added value to the chosen items, but it also highlighted the country’s slow-growing research and development (R&D) infrastructure, which could lead to a subsequent loss of investment and business as usual. Slovakia can generate better export added value by optimizing Industry 4.0-based manufacturing systems in the automotive sector.

Research on Sustainable Closed-Loop Supply Chain Synergy in Forest Industry Based on High-Quality Development: A Case Study in Northeast China

Forestry construction is a fundamental issue related to sustainable economic and social development. However, the traditional development of forestry is currently facing the dilemma of insufficient resource supply, rising labor cost, and a low return on forestry investment, which needs to be transformed into high-quality forestry development. The general view is that synergistic development is an important way to achieve high-quality development. Based on this, the strategic planning and behavioral choices of forestry enterprises under synergistic development are explored. With the objectives of minimizing cost and environmental impacts, and maximizing social benefits, a multi-objective sustainable closed-loop supply chain network planning model is developed to study a real case of a forestry supply chain in northeastern China. A robust optimization approach is used to deal with the relevant uncertain parameters, and a weighted generalized epsilon-constraint approach is applied to solve the multi-objective problem, based on which a GA genetic algorithm is used to solve it. Based on the synergistic development perspective, four different scenario assumptions and sensitivity analyses are made to examine the multi-objective calculation results in this closed-loop supply chain network, and then to analyze the strategic decisions and specific measures for forest industry enterprises to achieve high-quality development. The model results show that realizing supply chain synergy is an effective way to achieve efficient business development in the future. Managers should also establish an acceptable balance between sustainability dimensions while focusing on building a collaborative supply chain development model, where small economic benefits can be appropriately ignored to reduce the harmful effects of the production process on the environment.

A game between green and non-green supply chains considering two-way government intervention and manufacturer competition

Enterprise competition has been transformed into chain-to-chain competition, and green development is imperative under the promotion of policies. Horizontal cooperation between green and non-green manufacturers provides a new direction for the supply chain to improve its core competitiveness. This paper develops competition and cooperation models between two manufacturers for the green and non-green supply chain under two-way government intervention to explore the impact of manufacturers’ horizontal cooperation on decisions and profits of supply chain members. In particular, for a situation without cooperation, we consider a Stackelberg game between two manufacturers. Model solutions and numerical analysis have shown that: 1) Cooperation among manufacturers can not only improve their own profits, but also strengthen environmental welfare. However, cooperation will damage consumer surplus. 2) When consumers are more sensitive to product prices, manufacturers’ cooperative behavior is not conducive to retailers, but with the improvement of consumer environmental awareness, retailers will gradually support their upstream cooperation. 3) Under the simultaneous implementation of government subsidy and punishment strategies, whether green consumption can be promoted is related to the adjustment factor of government subsidies, while the relationship between the green level floor for subsidy and product greenness is affected by the adjustment factor of subsidies and manufacturers’ cooperation. 4) The impacts of fierce price competition and green level competition on supply chain members are opposite; when the price competition is moderate or the green level competition is weak, the manufacturers’ cooperation is also beneficial to the improvement of retailers’ profits. This provides ideas for the development of green supply chain, and provides a reference for the implementation of two-way government intervention policy.