摘要
Conflicts between supply chain members emerge because individual strategic actions may not be jointly optimal.Efforts to forecast consumer demand represent a source of conflict.The coordination of forecasts requires a powerful incentive alignment approach.This work proposes a smart contract equipped consortium blockchain system that creates an incentive structure that makes coordination with respect to forecasts economically appealing.Distortions of demand information due to uncoordinated forecasting are captured by a bullwhip measure that factors both forecast error and variance.Cooperation under the system is shown to help minimize this bullwhip measure,thus generating new outcomes for the participants that allow for a higher reward.Under a fixed payout structure,the system achieves credibility of continued cooperation,thus promoting an optimally coordinated equilibrium between the retailer and supplier.Blockchain technology represents a novel information system and consensus formation mechanism that can intermediate the behavior of a supply chain network.
