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Packaging has become an important concern of fresh food supply chains and will exert a growing influence under environmental policies. In this paper, we have discussed three specific issues to investigate fresh food supply chains' packaging strategy, that is, whether to use disposable packaging containers (DPCs) or reusable packaging containers (RPCs), whether to purchase or rent RPCs, and the influences of environmental policies. Our research has generated some key findings. First, we find that penalty (such as taxes) and reward (such as subsidies) are simultaneously needed to motivate supply chains to choose RPCs. In terms of the "purchasing or renting" choice, it highly depends on the relative magnitude of the purchase and rental subsidies, along with the number of uses of RPCs and the perishability of fresh food. We also conclude that reusing RPCs for more times has two‐sided effects, that is, the effect of cost saving and the effect of accelerated deterioration. Thus, it is not recommended to excessively reuse RPCs. In addition, we make two extensions. First, we consider endogenous tax rate and subsidy rates and discuss from the perspective of social welfare. Second, we consider endogenous sales price and rental price of RPCs and study the optimal decisions of the RPC operator. Results show that the government should establish a classified tax and subsidy system for packaging containers, and meanwhile benchmarking prices for RPC services should be set to curb the RPC operator's free‐riding behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Information asymmetry and poor solvency caused by uncertainties in supply chains are the root causes of supply chain financing risks (SCFR). The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of supply chain integration on reducing SCFR by incorporating the mechanisms of information sharing and controlling supply chain risks (SCR). Design/methodology/approach: This paper proposes hypothesis to discuss the impact of integration on SCFR and the mediating roles of alleviating information asymmetry and mitigating SCR, aiming at discovering factors and mechanisms to reduce SCFR. The research model was validated by applying structural equation modeling on survey data from 321 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Findings: Integration significantly reduces SCFR by dual approaches of information sharing and mitigating SCR, confirming that alleviating information asymmetry to reach information transparency and controlling SCR to reduce uncertainties facilitate less SCFR. Research limitations/implications: SMEs should enhance integration capability to reduce SCFR as it greatly influences the evaluation of financial service providers on SMEs and the sustainable financing capacity of SMEs. Additionally, any other methods that can improve information sharing and reduce SCR should be attached if possible. Originality/value: This study represents a pioneering attempt to analyze the impact of integration on reducing SCFR by exploring the specific mechanisms of alleviating information asymmetry and mitigating SCR. Meanwhile, few prior empirical studies have highlighted the importance of SCFR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the important role of supply chain risk management (SCRM) capabilities as pre-factors for SMEs to improve supply chain financing performance (SCFP), also incorporating the effect of supply chain integration (SCI). Design/methodology/approach: From the intersection of SCRM and SCF literature, this paper proposed hypothesis to discuss the impact of SCRM capabilities on SCFP and the role of SCI, aiming at combine SCRM with supply chain financing management. The research model was validated applying structural equation modeling on survey data from 286 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Findings: Four dimensions of SCRM capabilities have significant positive effects on SCFP with different significant levels, confirming that they are important pre-factors in supply chain finance (SCF). In addition, the impact of SCRM capabilities on SCFP differ when SCI varies, indicating the promoting effect of SCI. Practical implications: SMEs should establish SCRM capabilities as supply chain risks greatly influence the evaluation of financial providers and the achievement of SCF. Meanwhile, SCI should be attached for it enables superior SCFP even if SCRM capabilities are relatively limited. Originality/value: This study represents a pioneering attempt to analyze the pre-factors of SMEs in improving SCFP by combing SCRM with SCF management. Few prior studies have highlighted the importance of SCRM in SCF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Carbon cap-and-trade regulation is widely adopted to reduce carbon emissions. Under this regulation, we propose a carbon trading mechanism considering refrigerated logistics services in a fresh food supply chain. In addition to supplying fresh food, the supplier offers refrigerated logistics services and overstocked carbon emission permits to the retailer. We study the decisions on the price of emission permits traded within the supply chain, the retail price and the price of refrigerated logistics services in different carbon trading options, without carbon trade, inner carbon trade, inner and outer carbon trade. Pricing strategies for fresh food, emission permits and refrigerated logistics services are provided for supply chain members. We also reveal the relationship between carbon trading and refrigerated logistics services, and investigate their joint influence on the supplier--retailer cooperative relationship. In addition, it is shown that with the implementation of a transfer payment mechanism, supply chain members are motivated to participate in the carbon trading mechanism, which has advantages including improved resource utilisation and more competitive supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world becomes advance rapidly, and the demand of perishable food increases in the global market. Food firms perceive the cheapest supply chain process for the delivery of products to end consumers. Apart from that, consumer demands high quality and safe products with competitive price. In the global intense competition, China introduced One Belt One Road (OBOR) advanced feature supply chain management system to cut the cost of production for these product firms as well as functionally deliver high quality and green products to end consumer without affecting from high environment temperature. Respectively, the graphical research model and the multi-objective method were developed to examine the estimated perishable product trading figures with consideration to quality, which is achieved by accumulating the advanced transportation features offered by OBOR supply chain management as compared to ancient rail route supply chain. To prove this, "simulation optimization function was applied to measure the probability of time-saving for perishable product quality from environmental effects and its influences over product demand." Some perishable products were selected, and their trading figures and demand value were measured by comparing both rail route environmental effects over demand, weights of products, and trade. The results declare perishable food quality and trading volume increased due to fast delivery of products to numerous countries, having cold supply chain feature under OBOR supply chain management and estimated 25 days of time-saving. Comparative analysis discloses the coherent picture of both trading routes used for delivering the products. "The findings show large amount of time-saving maximizes perishable product quality from environmental influence" estimated 3 times higher with fast train supply chain. Conceptually, perceived from the idea, when and if maglev train 600 km over an hour will be used for perishable product supply chain purpose in the near future, the estimated quality of perishable products and trading is considered to be more than 5 times higher as compared to ancient supply chain route. The study suggests future research direction on topics, food quality along with supply chain management system, and environmental impact measurement policy under different supply chain routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption compensation is the driving force for motivating each supply chain link to set up information nodes, which is of great significance for promoting informatization, modernization, transformation, and upgrading of the supply chain system. This study simulates the evolution process of strategic selection for each supply chain link to set information nodes independently or collectively under the unconstrained government rewards conditions and punishments. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) When each link in the supply chain provides source tracing information independently, the vendor chooses to set up information nodes for the links with large information cost compensation coefficients. (2) When the vendor provides source tracing information cooperatively if the collaborative benefit is less than the cooperation cost, the information node will be set to the link with the large compensation coefficient. If not, information nodes will be set in each link. (3) Under the government incentive mechanism, enterprises are willing to cooperate. The punishment mechanism helps avoid situations where neither side sets up information nodes. The compensation coefficient is a prerequisite for mechanisms to work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The food supply chain is very complicated as compared to other supply chain networks. Adulteration and fraud are common in the food supply chain. "World food safety is at risk, and consumers are worried about vulnerability, contamination, and fraud activities." Moreover, time delay increases the detritions and spoilage conditions in perishable foods. Consumers want timely delivery of foods with maximum surety of safety and quality of foods. Respectively, graphical research method developed to ascertain consumer "both aspect" estimated total robustness. "There is a need to increase the food supply chain network robustness according to the consumer point of view—logistics regression and simulation technique used to find the estimated results." We analyzed, to provide the food delivery to consumers beyond their expectations before ever, give a chance to increase food supply chain robustness through physiologically "perception" and actually "saving 2000 miles." Although to prove this strategy, we select the advanced supply chain network of China one belt one road to deliver foods to end consumers "estimated 2.5 times more robust than ancient network." Additionally, this robust supply chain network provides fast delivery of foods with quick traceability, gives less time for fraud activities, increases food supply chain performance, and decreases the vulnerability ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modular production brings new opportunities for service provisions. We examine a supply chain consisting of two competing module suppliers and a common manufacturer, in which the manufacturer sources two differentiated modules from two suppliers and then produces two competing products for consumers. A delegation relationship is applied to explore the possibility of the module services offered by the suppliers. When the service commission fees are fixed, there exist optimal commission fees to maximize the manufacturer's profit. Service commission fees, service efficiencies, service sensitivity, and market types greatly affect the service levels, prices, and profitability of each member in the supply chain. The manufacturer should strategically adopt differentiated pricing strategies and service provisions from two suppliers rather than the best service abilities of the suppliers. In the service‐level sensitivity market, the improved service levels are more attractive to consumers so that the manufacturer will charge high prices by investing more in services. Product services with "high quality, high price" are more suitable for high‐end consumers. We also consider the variable service commission fees and find that there are still some robust results except that the effects of the service incentives and the commission fees will be enlarged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modular production requires new service provision under the trend of servitization. This paper is to explore the issue of module-based service associated with three different power structurers in a two-echelon supply chain that consists of a module supplier and a manufacturer. The manufacturer considers to delegate its upstream module supplier to provide services for downstream consumers. We divide the market into two types: the price-sensitive market and the service-level sensitive market. Different power structures and market types have a great impact on the service levels, prices and the profitability of each member in the supply chain. When the manufacturer (the supplier) acts as the leader in the supply chain, the module supplier should provide the highest (lowest)-level service and the manufacturer will charge the highest (lowest) price for the bundled product and service. The module supplier can benefit from the service-delegation relationship while the manufacturer will be hurt. There is an opportunity for the module supplier to offer the service, especially when the module supplier is in a dominated position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cold chains play an important role in reducing food spoilage, attracting food safety sensitive consumers, and guaranteeing food safety. Despite these advantages, the implementation of cold chains also calls for massive investment. Considering both costs and benefits of cold chains, our research established an optimization model for a fresh food supply chain to maximize its members' profits. Optimal investment levels of cold chain construction and advertisement, along with optimal pricing, were determined. The analysis shows that collaborative cold chain investment and collaborative pricing are superior strategies for the supply chain. Furthermore, we discuss the role of consumer food safety awareness and observe relatively high levels of cold chain investments and the mutually reinforcing effect of supply chain members' cold chain investments in a food safety sensitive market. Therefore, we suggest that governments should encourage improved food safety awareness among consumers to motivate cold chain investment and thus guarantee food safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a two-stage medical service supply chain system composed of health data bank and medical knowledge provider, the willingness of medical knowledge providers to share medical knowledge is of great importance. Based on the principal-agent theory, this paper designs an incentive mechanism to promote medical knowledge providers’ efforts to improve the storage of high-quality medical knowledge based on the double incentive dimension of “remuneration + value”, and comprehensively analyzes the relationship between the optimal effort level and the incentive intensities. The study finds that the level of effort of medical knowledge providers is not only affected by the incentive intensities, but also affected by their own conditions such as professional proficiency. Remuneration incentives can always play a positive role, and there is a mutual substitution relationship between the two remuneration incentive intensities of health data bank and medical institution. Value incentive may play a counter role, and the setting of value incentive intensity needs to be adjusted according to the status of the medical knowledge providers themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perishable food supply chain required special attention concerning "timely delivery supervision" that may have quality, safety and environmental effects throughout with transportation duration aspects which leads to create economic differences of product value. Consequently, the development of food quality and safety has achieved significant importance. Therefore, the development of perishable food supply chain transportation network needed to more explored to fill the gap of timely supervision. Respectively, the multi-objective conceptual simulation model is developed to optimize the cost, environmental effect, quality and safety, and the appropriate transportation facility at field level connected with perishable food supply chain transportation system. In this study, perishable food lifetime variations are significantly structured as the Weibull random approach, and product perishability is supposed to be influenced by transport refrigerator application, which is assumed as the decision variable. Apart from, multiple vehicle types and multiple perishable food types are taken. The perishable food supply chain case is examined and, the associations and interrelations of all aspects of sustainability are studied, which is known as the multi-objective model of sustainability. According to the findings, by emphasising the cost factors for highly perishable commodities, the supply chain's environmental impact may increase by 108%, and the social impact may rise by 45% for transportation networks with field refrigeration facilities. Additionally, a 23% increase in economic awareness could increase supply chain structure design sustainability by 137%. Environmental impact and the unpredictability of perishable foods are also seen as important variables that might have a variety of effects on the supply chain's structure and operation. This study contributes the cold supply chain's sustainable development objectives while enhancing the quality and safety of perishable products. The results propose that policy makers can significantly decrease the environmental and social effects of the supply chain even without considerably compromising the cost aspect. • To prevent environmental effects on food quality and safety, perishable items must be delivered quickly. • Sustainable transportation approach reduces waste and losses associated with perishable supplies. • By applying the right sustainable perishable food supply chain model, environmental effects can be reduced. • The choice and implementation of best plan depends on the analysis of the regional supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers a supply chain for a single product involving one retailer and two independent suppliers, when the main supplier might fail to supply the products, the backup supplier can always supply the products at a higher price. The retailer could use the backup supplier as a regular provider or a stand-by source by reserving some products at the supplier. A backup agreement with penalty scheme is constructed between the retailer and the backup supplier to mitigate the supply disruptions and the demand uncertainty. The expected profit functions and the optimal decisions of the two players are derived through a sequential optimisation process. Then, the sensitivity of two players’ expected profits to various input factors is examined through numerical examples. The impacts of the disruption probability and the demand uncertainty on the backup agreement are also investigated, which could provide guideline for how to use each sourcing method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]