Search Results (3,346)

In the face of global climate change and the collision of consumer preferences towards green and low-carbon, businesses need to accelerate the transition to sustainable development to achieve long-term growth. Companies must raise significant funds to support this transition and manage high market risk. The existing research on green innovation within supply chains often overlooks market risks, particularly those associated with incomplete information. Hence, this paper considers a two-echelon supply chain system composed of a manufacturer and a retailer. Manufacturers are willing to carry out green innovation and make a single product for sale in the consumer market with green preferences. However, innovation is risky due to the uncertainty in the sales volume of green products. In addition, the manufacturer may lack internal capital to invest in the innovation activities and may seek external financial resources, e.g., bank loans or retail prepayment financing. Hence, the manufacturer and retailer must decide which financial option to adopt. The results show that when the market risk is high, the supply chain members tend to make conservative decisions, no matter which financial modes they choose. However, with the robust optimization approach, the manufacturer and the retailer may earn a higher profit when the market risk is high. When the prepayment rate and bank loan interest rate are equal, regardless of the market risk, the manufacturer’s optimal decision is to choose prepayment financing from the retailer. However, when the prepayment rate is higher than the bank loan interest rate, there is no dominant strategy for the manufacturer to choose. Full article

In the context of supply disruption, having a resilient supply chain is crucial for the survival and growth of enterprises. It is also essential for gaining a competitive advantage in a turbulent environment. Enterprises need to invest in supply chain resilience to better deal with future uncertainties. This paper constructs a Stackelberg game model with the manufacturer as the leader and the retailer as the follower. We explored how supply chain-related factors under supply interruption risk affect supply chain resilience investment, and studied how to choose supply chain coordination strategies to improve the effectiveness of manufacturer capacity recovery and mutual profits in the context of supply interruption. The study also analyzes the asymmetrical impact of changes in product order quantity, supply disruption probability, and the capacity recovery coefficient on retailer decision-making and the profits of supply chain members. The results indicate that manufacturer profits are negatively correlated with supply disruption probability, while retailer profits are positively correlated with supply disruption probability when product order quantities are low and negatively correlated when product order quantities are high. The supply chain resilience investment is positively correlated with the supply disruption probability. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the cost-sharing contract is closely related to product order quantity and supply disruption probability. When the product order quantity d<αL−c[1−ξaL+ξaH]+sαHξ+wαL(1−ξ)k or αH−c[1−ξaL+ξaH]+sαHξ+wαL(1−ξ)k<d<αH[1−ξaL+ξaH](w−c)k, manufacturers can withstand the risk of supply interruption by investing in supply chain resilience alone. But when the product order quantity is αL−c[1−ξaL+ξaH]+sαHξ+wαL(1−ξ)k<d<αH−c[1−ξaL+ξaH]+sαHξ+wαL(1−ξ)k and αH[1−ξaL+ξaH](w−c)k<d, the use of cost-sharing contracts is more effective. Additionally, when the sensitivity analysis is conducted, the capacity recovery coefficient positively correlates with supply chain profits in a decentralized mode. However, under the cost-sharing contract mode, it exhibits a U-shaped fluctuation pattern, indicating that the impact of improving capacity recovery efficiency on the profits of both parties is not symmetrical and linear. As ξ approaches 0.5, the profits of manufacturers and retailers decrease. Instead, it undergoes an initial decline followed by a subsequent increase, highlighting the nonlinear benefits of capacity recovery strategies under the cooperative approach. Full article

(1) Background: The association of COVID-19 infection and mortality with mobility and weather in Indiana and Kentucky was compared for the period from 1 March to 15 May 2020. (2) Methods: The risk of COVID-19 infection and mortality was evaluated using Cox regressions with the following covariates: mobility (retail/recreation, grocery/pharmacy, and workplace), weather (precipitation, minimum and maximum temperature, ultraviolet [UV] index), and metropolitan status. (3) Results: A higher maximum temperature (adjusted hazard ratio_infection (aHR_i) = 1.01; adjusted hazard ratio_death (aHR_d) = 1.001), metropolitan status (aHR_i = 1.12; aHR_d = 2.05), and a higher minimum temperature (aHR_i = 1.01) were associated with increased risks of COVID-19 infection and/or mortality. Protection against COVID-19 infection and/or mortality was associated with retail/recreation (aHR_i = 0.97; aHR_d = 0.937), grocery/pharmacy (aHR_i = 0.991; aHR_d = 0.992), workplace (aHR_i = 0.99; aHR_d = 0.965), precipitation (aHR_i = 0.999; aHR_d = 0.9978), UV index (aHR_i = 0.37; aHR_d = 0.748), and a higher minimum temperature (aHR_d = 0.994). COVID-19 infection (aHR_i = 1.18) and mortality (aHR_d = 1.59) risks were higher in Indiana compared to Kentucky. (4) Conclusions: COVID-19 infection and mortality were 18% and 59% more likely among Indiana residents compared to Kentucky residents, respectively. This may be attributed to variations in stay-at-home order compliance and enforcement between Indiana and Kentucky. Full article

This study focuses on the effect of multichannel marketing communication in retail pharmacies to establish customer satisfaction in a world experiencing the digitalization of health sectors. The objective of the study is to understand customer acquisition and retention practices, the role of online and offline integrated communication, and the extent of customer preference for various marketing communication channels. As part of the study, the quantitative analysis of the publications included in the review was made using articles and reports published from 2014 to 2024. The review was conducted on the aspects of marketing using multiple channels in retail pharmacy and the healthcare-associated fields. The studies identified that comprehensive communication channel enhancement policies positively affect the generation of revenues, reduction in costs, and information delivery schedules in pharmaceuticals. Depending on the channel, consumers’ needs and wants differ, and there is success in personalizing and presenting reasonably logical thoughts to people. Synchronicity of online and offline communication effectively increases the customers’ power, trust, and satisfaction. E-marketing has always been significant in enhancing customers’ touch points, which is why digital transformation is vital. This study further supports the fact that multichannel marketing is mandatory for the success of a retail pharmacy in the prevalent, highly competitive environment. The implementation also presupposes knowledge of consumer differences, the synergy of online and offline contacts, the emphasis on personalization, and fast adaptation to the changing technological environment, but often within the framework of severe legislation. Full article

Research on modern agri-food chains aims to enhance flexibility by analyzing supply chain aspects to identify improvement opportunities. A SWOT analysis of 39 agri-food sector organizations using a SWOT analysis organized using the PESTEL and MEETHS categories was conducted to evaluate the stakeholders’ needs in this sector of activity in Northern Portugal. Logistic regressions were used to compute inferential statistics, which were complemented with a qualitative analysis. Cooperatives and primary sector companies often claim superior product quality without clear evidence, while corporations integrated into competitive national markets, like those with smoked products, adapt better to dietary trends. Small- and medium-sized enterprises struggle with competitive wages, leading to high turnover and difficulty retaining skilled workers. High costs hinder many organizations, particularly cooperatives, from adopting modern communication technologies affecting competitiveness. Challenges include identifying market opportunities and managing global competition for raw materials, like wild fish. Fishing and meat sectors depend heavily on modern distribution and are dominated by large retailers. Low labor costs boost competitiveness but reflect the struggle to add value. Larger organizations are more optimistic though many face challenges with the cost and volatility of key products, like pork and milk. This study offers the following key recommendations: invest in technology and innovation while balancing short-term gains with long-term sustainability; strengthen strategic planning and collaboration among corporations, cooperatives, associations, and academic institutions; and adapt to regulatory changes, invest in market and technological capabilities, and address resource limitations. Research and collaboration with policymakers and academic institutions will support tailored solutions, enabling the sector to anticipate challenges and capitalize on opportunities. Full article

The rise of rural e-commerce, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has driven agricultural development, resulting in a dual-channel model that combines offline supermarket docking with online e-commerce direct sales. Furthermore, given the perishable nature of most agricultural products, consumers exhibit a preference for high-quality logistics services. This paper analyses the dynamics of the agricultural supply chain, beginning with the “leading enterprises + farmers” production mode, and establishes two optimal decision-making models for online and offline dual-channel agricultural supply chains, incorporating logistics service levels. The first model considers centralised decision-making, where leading agricultural producers and community superstores make decisions simultaneously, aiming to maximise the overall profit of the supply chain. The second model addresses decentralised decision-making in which the producer, as the dominant player in a Stackelberg game, anticipates the reactions of retailers and sets the wholesale price, online sales price, and online logistics service level accordingly. Retailers, as followers, then determine the offline sales price and offline logistics service level based on the producer’s decisions. Finally, we conduct a sensitivity analysis of the proposed models. Our findings reveal that as consumer focus on logistics service levels increases, the overall profit of the supply chain improves, and as the unit logistics cost corresponding to the level of logistics service increases, the marginal benefits of decreasing profit brought about by the increase in unit logistics cost also decrease. Full article

The quality control of remanufactured products in a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) can significantly influence consumers’ decision-making, and the contract coordination of CLSC has also become a research hotspot. This paper explores the quality control problem in a three-level remanufacturing CLSC consisting of a remanufacturer, a retailer, and a recycler by constructing a system dynamics (SD) model, which contains two contract schemes: quality control contract and quality control–revenue-sharing contract. Subsequently, the proposed SD model is analyzed using various schemes. The findings suggest that without mandatory contracts, CLSC members are frequently unable to fulfill their quality improvement commitments. Among them, recyclers are less likely to improve quality and more prone to breaking promises. The quality control problem in CLSC can be addressed through contract coordination, and the quality control contract scheme can avoid non-compliance with quality improvement commitments. The application of the quality control–revenue-sharing combination contract scheme not only resolves the quality control issue but also promotes profit improvement in the CLSC. Full article

Previous studies have acknowledged the impact of weather changes on retail uncertainty. They primarily focus on understanding how weather conditions affect offline consumer behavior and aim to develop effective marketing strategies. However, there is little research on the complex impact of weather on online shopping behavior. To bridge this gap, we conduct a study with a sample of 261 consumers from China with shopping experience in community retail shops (CRSs). We utilize the S-O-R model and theories, including meteorological emotional effect theory, emotional coherence, and meteorological psychology, to model and elucidate the relationship between weather and consumers’ online shopping behavior in CRS. Our findings reveal that weather conditions affect consumers’ spending patterns and purchase diversity, mediated by consumers’ emotions and risk aversion when they comfortably shop online at home. Furthermore, employing the fsQCA model, we identify the critical path through which weather conditions and consumer types influence risk-aversion awareness. The results provide management implications for retailers to develop online marketing strategies for different consumer types. Full article

A scientific understanding of the real estate sector’s role in the national economy is essential for facilitating reasonable and effective regulation and promoting economic development. By analyzing panel data from a sample of 67 countries between 2010 and 2018, we examine the role of the real estate sector in different countries and its determinants. This empirical study yields three main findings. Firstly, there is a strong correlation between the real estate sector and the financial services sector, the construction industry, as well as wholesale and retail trade. Notably, China’s real estate sector exhibits relatively high direct consumption of financial service activities compared to other major countries. Secondly, there is a transition trend in both the input and output of the real estate sector from primary and secondary industries towards service-oriented industries. Lastly, key determinants influencing the economic effects of the real estate sector in a country include economic growth, current national income level, expense structure of the economy, aging population, as well as urbanization speed. Full article

The “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) drives international trade more and more frequently, making exchange rates and taxes unavoidable issues for multi-national companies. Thus, exchange risk uncertainty and tax saving planning should be considered in the operational decisions of a multi-national supply chain. This paper constructs a Stackelberg game model with four composite modes to explore the risk-taking and hedging strategy of retailers with reference-dependent psychology. The results show that: (1) exchange rate risk is transmitted through all subjects under the cost-plus transfer pricing strategy, while it is transmitted only between headquarters and retailers under the resale-price transfer pricing strategy. (2) No matter which subject bears the exchange rate risk, the motivation is stronger under the resale-price transfer pricing strategy. (3) The effect of futures hedging exchange rate risk is influenced by retailer reference-dependent psychology. When the reference dependence coefficient is low, and the risk of positive exchange rate fluctuations is too high, the retailer chooses to hedge its exchange rate risk. At this time, the transfer pricing strategy should shift to cost-plus, and the exchange rate fluctuation range that each entity can afford is larger than before hedging. Full article

This paper studies optimal decisions in an authorized remanufacturing closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) consisting of a manufacturer, a retailer, and an authorized third-party remanufacturer with dual-fairness concerns (distributional fairness concerns and peer-induced fairness concerns). Four Stackelberg game models are developed: (i) the dual-fairness concerns are considered by the retailer (model F); (ii) the retailer does not consider both types of fairness concerns (model N); (iii) the retailer only considers the distributional fairness concerns (model D); (iv) the retailer only considers the peer-induced fairness concerns (model P). We use numerical analysis to examine the equilibrium outcomes under dual-fairness concerns. The results show that: (1) The increase in the coefficient of peer-induced fairness concerns will result in more profit for the manufacturer in most cases, while distributional fairness concerns always hurt the manufacturer; (2) In most parameter cases, the increase in the degree of distributional fairness concerns favors the retailer. The retailer considers only peer-induced fairness concerns when the degree of distributional fairness concerns is low and the degree of peer-induced fairness concerns is relatively high, whereas in other cases, two kinds of fairness concerns are ignored; (3) Model P is the most profitable and model D is most disadvantageous for the third party, however, for the manufacturer it is the opposite; (4) The impact of fairness concerns on the environment depends on the retailer’s attitude towards fairness concerns. Model P is the best for the environment, while model D has the highest environmental impact. This study introduces dual-fairness concerns into the authorized remanufacturing CLSC model and provides theoretical references for authorized remanufacturing and sustainability practices. Full article

Agri-food supply chains have the potential to make a significant contribution to achieving sustainable development goals through ongoing improvements in their configurations. A range of strategic, tactical, and operational level decisions pertaining to the design and operation of sustainable supply chains have been studied in the extant literature. However, investigations into the adoption of multi-modal transportation as a strategic decision in the context of agri-food supply chains operating in constrained environments are limited. As such, in this study, the adoption of bi-modal transportation for the domestic vegetable supply chain in a developing country context under certain constraints was examined. A mixed-integer linear programming model was developed to determine the volume and direction of the product flow to achieve the minimum total food-miles and smallest emissions footprint. As a case study, a Sri Lankan mainstream vegetable supply chain was used to investigate the applicability of a combination of truck and railway modes to transport vegetables from farms to retailer locations via economic (consolidation) centers. The adoption of a bi-modal transportation structure demonstrated the potential to reduce food miles by 32%, transportation costs by 36%, contributions to global warming potential by 35%, and empty truck hauls by 38%, compared to a structure with truck-based, uni-modal transportation. Full article

Ensuring optimal infant nutrition is crucial for the health and development of children. Many infants aged 0–6 months are fed with infant formula rather than breast milk. Research on cancer cell lines and animal models is limited to examining the nutrition effects of formula and breast milk, as it does not comprehensively consider absorption, metabolism, and the health and social determinants of the infant and its physiology. Our study utilized small intestine organoids induced from human embryo stem cell (ESC) to compare the nutritional effects of breast milk from five donors during their postpartum lactation period of 1–6 months and three types of Stage 1 infant formulae from regular retail stores. Using transcriptomics and untargeted metabolomics approaches, we focused on the differences such as cell growth and development, cell junctions, and extracellular matrix. We also analyzed the roles of pathways including AMPK, Hippo, and Wnt, and identified key genes such as ALPI, SMAD3, TJP1, and WWTR1 for small intestine development. Through observational and in-vitro analysis, our study demonstrates ESC-derived organoids might be a promising model for exploring nutritional effects and underlying mechanisms. Full article

As food safety awareness rises and living standards improve, consumers have increasingly higher expectations for the efficiency and quality of cold chain logistics services. For cold chain logistics service providers, accurately understanding consumer psychology and enhancing their willingness to continue using the service—while guiding them to actively participate in green cold chain logistics practices—are necessary means to maintain competitiveness. Therefore, based on stimulus-organism-response and cognitive-affective-conative theories, this study constructs a three-stage model to explore the factors influencing consumers’ continuous consumption of online retail cold chain delivery services. This study substantiates that consumers’ intention to continue consuming proceeds through the following three stages: cognitive, affective, and conative. Specifically, the results indicate that consumer- and environment-oriented services significantly enhance consumer value and psychological empowerment, which further promotes their intention to continue using the service and participate in green practices. Moreover, psychological empowerment and perceived value fully and partially mediate the relationship between the two types of services and consumer sustainable consumption, respectively. These findings expand the research on cold chain consumption and deepen our understanding of how various factors influence consumer behavior. Full article

As manufacturing advances swiftly and public consciousness about low-carbon practices rises, eco-friendly supply chains have seen significant expansion. This study investigates a government-driven green supply chain in two phases, involving a producer and a seller. Four scenario game models are established to determine whether the manufacturer engages in green technology innovation or whether the retailer has altruistic preferences. The Stackelberg game was used to analyze changes in government carbon quota regulations, retail prices of retailers, and manufacturers’ carbon reduction efforts in the context of carbon market trading. Research shows that the government will set looser carbon emission limits for manufacturers when retailers have no altruistic preferences. When carbon prices in the market are low, encouraging manufacturers to invest in green technology innovation enhances social welfare. This study offers essential theoretical backing for the government in crafting carbon quota regulations and aids businesses in making prompt technological innovation choices. Full article