The Impact of Cost Sharing on Green Technology Investment in Competing Supply Chains

The investment in green technology in the process of product design and production is viewed asa powerful tool for sustainable development and carbon emission reduction However,the substantial cost and pressure of competition weaken incentives for manufacturers to engage in green technology.In this paper,we consider two competitive manufacturer-retailer supply chains,where each manufacturer sells partially substitutable products through the exclusive retailer,study green technology investment selection by manufacturers,and examine the efficacy of retailer cost sharing scheme.Our analysis shows that a dominant equilibrium strategy for both manufacturers is to invest in green technologies,whether cost sharing is in place or not.Retailer sharing the cost of manufac turer green technology investment can avoid firms'preference confliction over the green technology investment and improve social welfare simultaneously when both the cost-sharing rate and the degree of product/channel competition are relatively low.We also find that green technology investment by manufacturers does not necessarily curb total carbon emission,and the cost sharing can either strengthen or weaken the carbon emission reduction of green technology investment.

Does Environmental Regulation Weaken Industrial Competitiveness?Inspirations from China’s Iron and Steel Sector

China＇s economic growth is heavily influenced by exports, while reconciling environmental regulation and economic growth requires handling the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial competitiveness well. The effects of environmental regulation on industrial competitiveness are largely subject to the institutional design of environmental regulation. Despite numerous studies on the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial competitiveness, a consensus has yet to be reached. Aside from differences in research methodology, these studies failed to give sufficient consideration to the impact of environmental regulation on industrial competitiveness. Such effects can be negative or positive depending on the design of environmental regulatory policy. This paper has investigated the relationship between environmental regulation and the competitiveness of China＇s iron and steel industry and discovered that tighter environmental regulation does not diminish the competitiveness of the iron and steel industry since the policy design of environmental regulation accommodates the tolerance of advanced production capacity and includes a reasonable cost sharing mechanism. This discovery is of important reference for China to develop rational policy design to balance the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial competitiveness.

Collaborative adoption of blockchain technology: A supply chain contract perspective

The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly affected the development of enterprises.In the post-pandemic era,blockchain technology has become one of the important technologies to help enterprises quickly gain market competitiveness.The heavy investment required of supply chain stakeholders to employ blockchain technology has hindered its adoption and application.To tackle this issue,this study aims to facilitate the adoption of blockchain technology in a supply chain consisting of a core enterprise and a small/medium-sized enterprise through an effective supply chain contract.We analyze the performance of a cost-sharing(CS)contract and a revenue-sharing(RS)contract and propose a new hybrid CS-RS contract for better performance.We conduct comparative analyses of the three contracts and find that the hybrid CS-RS contract can more effectively incentivize both parties to reach the highest level of blockchain technology adoption and achieve supply chain coordination.