Cause-related Marketing Strategy in Supply Chain Considering Quality Differentiation

Cause-related marketing(CRM),as an organic combination of marketing and corporate social responsibility(CSR),has been widely used in the supply chain.However,the existing literature rarely studies the CRM strategy the in the supply chain.This paper explores the pricing decisions and CRM strategy of supply chain members by examining a supply chain system consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer,where the manufacturer produces two quality differentiated products.By developing a Stackelberg model for three scenarios,including the No CRM strategy,CRM strategy for the high-quality product,and CRM strategy for the low-quality product,this paper finds that the CRM strategy will result in higher wholesale and sales prices for the cause-related product.In addition,consumers’pro-sociality and the degree of product quality differentiation are critical to the manufacturer’s choice of CRM strategy.When the quality difference differs significantly,the manufacturer should implement CRM for the high-quality product in a market with low consumer pro-sociality and for the low-quality product in a market with high consumer pro-sociality;when the product quality difference is slight,the manufacturer should choose to implement CRM for the low-quality product regardless of consumer’s pro-sociality.Furthermore,the model is extended to that the retailer implements the CRM strategy and a retailer-led supply chain.The results indicate that CRM strategy in the supply chain is not influenced by the implementing entity or the supply chain leader.

Energy storage resources management:Planning,operation,and business model

With the acceleration of supply-side renewable energy penetration rate and the increasingly diversified and complex demand-side loads,how to maintain the stable,reliable,and efficient operation of the power system has become a challenging issue requiring investigation.One of the feasible solutions is deploying the energy storage system(ESS)to integrate with the energy system to stabilize it.However,considering the costs and the input/output characteristics of ESS,both theinitial configuration process and the actual operation process require efficient management.This study presents a comprehensive reviewof managing ESs from the perspectives of planning,operation,and business model.First of all,in terms of planning and configuration,it is investigated from capacity planning,location planning,as well as capacity and location combined planning.This process is generally the first step in deploying ESS.Then,it explores operation management of ESS from the perspectives of state assessment and operation optimization.The so-called state assessment refers to the assessment of three aspects:The state of charge(SOC),the state of health(SOH),and the remaining useful life(RUL).The operation optimization includes ESS operation strategy optimization and joint operation optimization.Finally,it discusses the business models of ESS.Traditional business models involve ancillary services and load transfer,while emerging business models include electric vehicle(EV)as energy storage and shared energy storage.