Trade credit financing for supply chain coordination under financial challenges:a multi‑leader–follower game approach

This study is designed to solve supply chain inefficiencies caused by some members’financial problems,such as capital shortages and financing restrictions in a stochastic environment.To this end,we have established a supply chain finance framework by designing two novel coordinating contracts based on trade credit financing for different problem settings.These contracts are modeled in the form of multi-leader Stackelberg games that address horizontal and vertical competition in a supply chain consisting of multiple suppliers and a financially constrained manufacturer.However,previous studies in the trade credit literature have addressed only simple vertical competition,that is,seller-buyer competition.To solve the proposed models,two algorithms were developed by combining population-based metaheuristics,the Nash-domination concept,and the Nikaido-Isoda function.The results demonstrate that the proposed supply chain finance framework can eliminate supply chain inefficiencies and make a large profit for suppliers,as well as the financially constrained manufacturer.Furthermore,the results of the contracts’analysis showed that if the manufacturer is required to settle its payments to suppliers before the end of the period,the trade credit contract cannot coordinate the supply chain because of a lack of incentive for suppliers.However,if the manufacturer is allowed to extend its payments to the end of the period,the proposed trade credit financing contract can coordinate the supply chain.Finally,the sensitivity analysis results indicate that the worse the financial status of the manufacturer,the more bargaining power suppliers have in determining the contract parameters for more profit.

DISRUPTION MANAGEMENT FOR SUPPLY CHAIN COORDINATION WITH EXPONENTIAL DEMAND FUNCTION

The coordination problem of a supply chain comprising one supplier and one retailer under market demand disruption is studied in this article. A novel exponential demand function is adopted, and the penalty cost is introduced explicitly to capture the deviation production cost caused by the market demand disruption. The optimal strategies are obtained for different disruption scale under the centralized mode. For the decentralized mode, it is proved that the supply chain can be fully coordinated by adjusting the price discount policy appropriately when disruption occurs. Furthermore, the authors point out that similar results can be established for more general demand functions that represent different market circumstances if certain assumptions are satisfied.

Supply Chain Coordination with Demand Disruptions under Convex Production Cost Function

This paper investigates the problem of how to handling demand disruptions ina one-supplier-one-retailer supply chain, where production cost is a convex function of productionquantity andprice-demand relationship is linear. Our results show that, ifdemand is disrupted, underthe new price-demand relationship, all-unit wholesale quantity discount policies combiningcapacitated linear pricingpolicies can also fully coordinate the supply chain.

Coordination game model of co-opetition relationship on cluster supply chains

The research of cluster supply chains is a new direction and a hotspot of the industrial cluster theory. On the condition of the coordination game, the enterprises may be stuck on the non-efficient equilibrium status, which becomes an important problem that must be considered on cluster supply chains. A symmetrical coordination game model is constituted to describe the competition and cooperation relationship of the same-quality manufacturers on cluster supply chains. The methods of the non-cooperation game theory and the evolutionary game theory are respectively used to analyze the model, whose parameters＇ influences under each method are then compared. It can be concluded that the analysis of the evolutionary game theory is more realistic and practical. Finally, three approaches are considered to break away from being path-dependence locked-in non-efficient status during this coordination game evolutionary process, which provide the development of cluster supply chains with an effective forecasting and Pareto optimizing method.

Supply chain coordination mechanisms under flexible contracts

In supply chain management,an important research direction is to coordinate the supply chain through introducing flexible contracts.A supply chain contract is flexible if it can satisfy two conditions at the same time：the supply chain is coordinated,and the total profit of the supply chain can be arbitrarily divided between the supply chain members.This paper puts out two contracts,a flexible return contract and a flexible wholesale price discount contract.In contrast to many of literature,the supply chain contracts with an endogenous wholesale price is specifically considered,and a detailed sensitivity analysis of the contract parameters is given.The paper also discusses the application of the contract in vendor-managed inventory（VMI） mode.The results show that the supply chain＇s performance is improved after introducing above contracts.All the findings are illustrated by numerical examples.

E-Supply Chain Incentive and Coordination Based on Revenue Sharing Contract

This paper took the buyer-biased electronic market as an example, where multiple suppliers selling short-life-cycle products are bidding for an order from a powerful buyer with stochastic customer demand. It used a single period newsvendor model to analyze the decision of supplied and buyers to do or not do business online. The results suggest that lack of Incentive is the key factor of B2B electronic markets failure. At the same time, it designed a revenue sharing contract to coordinate the E-supply chain in order to prevent failure of E-market.

Coordination Model of Consumer Information Sharing in the Online Tourism Supply Chain

This is a study of the coordination model of consumer information sharing in the tourism supply chain with e-commerce platforms as the core.On the basis of considering the risks,a game theory is used to explore the information sharing effort level and the output profit of the tourism supply chain under both,centralized decision-making and decentralized decision-making.Finally,numerical simulation is used to verify the model and put forward a method of coordination for all parties in the tourism supply chain to achieve maximum profit.

Revenue-sharing contract to coordinate independent participants within the supply chain

To improve the performance of the supply chain with one supplier and multiple retailers under deterministic price-sensitive customer demand, an optimal strategy is proposed based on knowledge discovery. First the decentralized system in which the supplier and the retailers are independent, profit-maximizing participants with the supplier acting as a Stackelberg game leader is studied. Numerical examples illustrate the importance of the coordination. The conventional quantity discount mechanism needs to be modified to coordinate the supply chain, so a revenue-sharing contract is proposed to coordinate such supply chain. Lastly, a special decision under certain demand rates is studied. The pricing and replenishment policies can be decided sequentially, which yields much less loss comparing with optimal decision when the demand rates are sufficiently large.

A joint inventory–finance model for coordinating a capital‑constrained supply chain with financing limitations

Faced with economic recession,firms struggle to find ways to stay competitive and maintain market share.Effective coordination of the supply chain can solve this problem,but this may fail if existing capital constraints and financial flows are ignored.This study addresses the challenge by exploiting coordination through joint decision-making on the physical and financial flows of a capital-constrained supply chain.We also consider the capital-constrained member’s financing limitations that lead to lost sales.Two scenarios based on non-coordinated and coordinated structures are modeled in the form of bi-objective optimization problems that simultaneously optimize system costs and service levels.The models are solved using the -constraint method.The results indicate that the non-coordinated model cannot satisfy more than about 50%of the demand due to capital shortage and financing limitations,while the coordinated model can satisfy all of the demand via internal financing.Furthermore,the proposed coordination scheme leads to cost reduction for the members and the total system.To motivate all members to accept the proposed coordination scheme,a cost-sharing mechanism is applied to the coordination procedure.Finally,a sensitivity analysis concerning financial parameters is provided for validating the coordination model.

Supply Chain Network Equilibrium with Revenue Sharing Contract under Demand Disruptions

Contract is a common and effective mechanism for supply chain coordination,which has been studied extensively in recent years.For a supply chain network model,contracts can be used to coordinate it because it is too ideal to obtain the network equilibrium state in practical market competition.In order to achieve equilibrium,we introduce revenue sharing contract into a supply chain network equilibrium model with random demand in this paper.Then,we investigate the influence on this network equilibrium state from demand disruptions caused by unexpected emergencies.When demand disruptions happen,the supply chain network equilibrium state will be broken and change to a new one,so the decision makers need to adjust the contract parameters to achieve the new coordinated state through bargaining.Finally,a numerical example with a sudden demand increase as a result of emergent event is provided for illustrative purposes.

Collaborative supply chain planning under dynamic lot sizing costs with capacity decision

Studies show that supply chain cooperation improves supply chain performance. However, it remains a challenge to develop and implement the realistic supply chain cooperation scheme. We investigate a two-echelon supply chain planning problem with capacity acquisition decision under asymmetric cost and demand information. A simple negotiation-based coordination mechanism is developed to synchronize production/order strategies of a supplier and a buyer. The coordination scheme shows how the supplier and the buyer modify their production and order policy in order to find a joint economic lot sizing plan, which saves the overall supply chain cost. The allocation of the cooperation benefit is determined by negotiation. Due to the complexity of the multiple periods, multiple level supply chain lot sizing with capacity decision, a heuristic algorithm is developed to find coordination solutions. Finally, the results of the numerical study indicate the performance of supply chain coordination scheme.

Financing Strategy of Low-Carbon Supply Chain with Capital Constraint under Cap-and-Trade Regulation

Cap-and-trade regulation provides incentives for manufacturers to reduce carbon emissions,but manufacturers’insufficient capital can disrupt the implementation of low-carbon emission reduction technologies.To alleviate capital constraints,manufacturers can adopt external financing for low-carbon emission reduction investments.This paper studies the independent financing and financing cooperation behavior in a supply chain in which the manufacturer and retailer first implement low-carbon emission reduction technologies and then organize production and sales in accordance with wholesale price contracts.Through comparing the optimal profits and low-carbon emission reduction levels under the independent financing and financing cooperation mode,we come to the following conclusions:(1)Although financing interest increases the cost of the supply chain,manufacturers prefer to invest in reducing carbon emissions rather than buying carbon quotas.(2)When financing independently,a decentralized decision-making mode(MD)is the best choice for manufacturers.(3)In cooperative financing,when the supply chain adopts a decentralized decision-making mode(SD)in which the retailer determines the financing cost-sharing ratio according to their optimal profit,the profits of the supply chain and its members are significantly improved.(4)When manufacturers and retailers adopt a centralized decision-making model(SC)in cooperative financing,they jointly determine the financing cost-sharing ratio and the level of low-carbon emission reduction.If the financing cost-sharing ratio meets a certain threshold range,the profits of manufacturers and retailers achieve Pareto improvement,indicating that this cooperative financing model is effective.

Structures of Textile-apparel Supply Chain: Concepts and Cases

In recent years, supply chain management (SCM) has been in popularity as a new management philosophy for all industries, including textile and apparel industries. The textile-apparel supply chain is relatively complex because it encompasses many participants such as yarn manufa-cturers, fabric manufacturers, garment manufacturers and retailers. Although many scholars are engaged in rese-arching SCM in textile and apparel industries, a systematic classification of textile-apparel chain does not exist. The paper proposes three types of textile-apparel chain, nominated vertical integration chain, traditional sourcing chain and 3P-hub (third party as the hub) chain. Different coordinators exist in different types of chain. Three Hong Kong headquartered companies, Esquel Group, TAL Apparel Ltd., and Li & Fung (Trading) Ltd. are used as cases responding to each type of the structures respectively.

Pareto Optimal Solution for Supply Contracts with Multiple Suppliers

This paper analyzes an electronic procurement （e-procurement） process between a manufacturer and N-supplier in the e-market. We proof that using the general contract based on auction theory, i. e. the wholesale price contract, would not achieve the coordination of channel composed of the manufacturer and the winning supplier. The paper designs a contract mechanism, i.e. the side payment price-restricted contract based on auction theory, which not only ensures Pareto optimal solutions for both, but also coordinates the supply chain. A numerical experiment is provided to compare the performance of different auction mechanisms and to reinforce key managerial insights generated through analysis.

Game Theory Based Decision Coordination Strategy of Agricultural Logistics Service Information System

Under the background of“Internet plus”rapid development,the agricultural logistics industry should apply information technology to every link of the agricultural product logistics industry chain.By making full use of the decision making module of the agricultural logistics information system,we can realize the full sharing of information and data resources,which makes the decision-making scheme of the agricultural logistics information system more optimized.In real economic society,the uncertainty and mismatch between the customer’s logistics service demand and the logistics service capability that the logistics service function provider can provide,that is,when the two information are asymmetric,how to use the third-party contract to coordinate the income and profit distribution of the two,to make the information system decision making more reasonable?This paper mainly studies the coordination scheme of agricultural logistics information system decision making under uncertain output and demand information by introducing the spot market.A joint coordination strategy based on revenue sharing and penalty feedback contracts proposes decentralized decision making based on game theory.Experiments show that the flexible ordering strategy proposed in this paper can reduce the logistics service supply chain’s uncertainty and significantly improve the logistics service supply chain’s overall income level through coordination contracts.

Algebraic or Algorithmic: Searching for Optimal Solutions in Multi-Stage Supply Chain Models

In this paper we proposed an AMH Supply Chain model to obtain optimal solutions for Two-, Three- and Four-Stage for deterministic models. Besides deriving its algebraic solutions, a simple searching method is successfully applied in obtaining optimal total costs and its integer multipliers. Our model has shown promising results in comparison to Equal Cycle Time and other existing ones. The tests focused on obtaining optimal total annual costs and other related details of Two-, Three- and Four-Stage for deterministic models. The results are run under Visual Basic Programming platform using Intel? CoreTM2 Duo T6500 Processor.

Supply chain decisions and coordination in the presence of an imperfect spot market

This study considers a supply chain consisting of a commodity supplier and a final product manufacturer with uncertain demand.In addition to purchasing from the supplier through a forward contract,the manufacturer can adjust their inventory by trading the commodity in an online spot market after observing the actual demand.However,the spot market is imperfect in that transactions cannot be certainly realized and come with additional transaction costs.Furthermore,the spot price is volatile such that overly relying on the spot market is unwise.To investigate how the spot market affects the decisions and coordination in a supply chain,we develop a game-theoretical model incorporating spot trading.We derive the optimal ordering decision in a centralized supply chain,as well as the supplier's and manufacturer's equilibrium pricing and ordering decisions in a decentralized supply chain.The impact of the imperfect spot market on the optimal decisions and profits is analyzed.This study also demonstrates how the supply chain can be coordinated in the presence of an imperfect spot market.Finally,a numerical analysis is performed to examine the analytical results.Our results indicate that the spot market can generally improve the performance of the centralized supply chain and benefit the manufacturer in the decentralized one.However,it can be detrimental to the supplier.The supply chain can be coordinated by a revenue-sharing contract,and both parties'profits can be improved.Our findings suggest that the manufacturer could take advantage of the spot market,and the supplier should attempt to integrate or coordinate the supply chain to share the benefits of spot trading.

营商环境、产业转移与区域协调发展

营商环境已成为推进产业转移和区域协调发展的关键变量。高度重视优化中西部地区营商环境、鼓励东部地区产业向中西部迁移而不是向海外转移,对推动比较优势在东部和中西部之间的转化、促进产业转型升级和区域协调发展,具有积极的实践价值。现阶段,全球产供链重组要求着力提升产业链供应链韧性和安全水平,这就需要通过提升中西部地区的竞争优势,让一些产业循环留在国内,增强中国在全球产供链体系中的自主可控能力。同时,全国统一大市场建设要求中央做好区域协调的战略准备,将过去地方政府依靠创造优惠政策洼地参与区域竞争,转变为创造更好更优的营商环境、建设高标准市场体系。为此,需要加快推进实施市场取向的竞争政策;需要让中国的产业政策转型为中央主导型,促进地方产业政策转向鼓励公平竞争和效率竞争;需要通过再造市场规则、融资环境、政府服务环境、司法环境、公共服务平台等,多管齐下改善中西部地区营商环境。