Narrow Results

A three-layer supply chain model with a single supplier, manufacturer, and retailer is presented in this paper. This proposed model is analyzed under green investment along with trade credit and cap-trade policy. It is considered that the manufacturer’s production process is imperfect. Few inferior quality products are reworked, and the remaining defective items are discarded. The manufacturer makes investments in green technology to reduce carbon emissions. The product’s demand is influenced by selling price, advertisement, and green-technology level. The total average profit of the supply chain is constructed under three different scenarios of trade credit provided by the manufacturer to the retailer. The primary goal of this research is to obtain the optimal selling price, production rate, and green-technology level to maximize the system’s total average profit by using genetic algorithm. A numerical example is shown to demonstrate the model, and sensitivity analysis is carried out to analyze the impact of numerous input parameters. Managerial insights and conclusions are provided to make this model helpful for manufacturers.

Credit payment strategies have been implemented widely in the online retail industry. This work studies an online-retail supply chain involving credit period and selling price-dependent demands. The participants of the supply chain form a Stackelberg game where the supplier as a follower sells products to the customers through an online platform provider, who as a leader provides a credit period to customers and charges the supplier based on the quantity of goods sold. We study and compare the supply chains when the online platform provider adopts the cash payment and credit payment strategies, respectively, to investigate the effects of the credit period, the selling price and the default risk on supply chain system performance. We also investigate these supply chains under both the centralized and decentralized settings and provide an example to illustrate a simple allocation mechanism to coordinate the decentralized supply chain. Finally, an extension of the supply chain with credit payment is given.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the accidental events’ impacts on the complicated supply chain systems and reveal the dynamic nonlinear system’s role in enterprises’ logistics financial management. First, the logistics distribution network and nonlinear system are analyzed and introduced, revealing the complexity of enterprises’ supply chain systems. Second, considering the situation of enterprises’ financial management, four major entities, the supplier, the distributor, the retailer, and the manufacturer, are introduced to construct a dynamic nonlinear model for the supply chain system. Finally, the model before and after accidental events are simulated and analyzed using the AnyLogic software. Results demonstrate that in normal states, each node’s inventory in the system changes periodically, while the distributor’s state is the most stable. A notable decrease in market demand has the largest impact on the distributor. Once the market demand is recovered, the decrease in the distributor’s inventory is the most apparent, and the inventories of the supplier, the retailer, and the manufacturer also decrease. The supplier has the highest cost at the beginning of system operation, and the distributor’s cost is the highest after the operation becomes stable. Once an accidental event caused a sharp decrease in market demand, the costs of all major entities in the system show an increasing trend. Once the market demand is recovered, the costs of different node entities will increase instead. As for the profits, the distributor has the highest profit initially, which is significantly influenced by the accidental events. The results provide a reference for revealing the changing laws of complicated supply chain systems and promoting the development of enterprises’ financial management.

To improve the integrity of the supply chain and get the optimal joint scheduling of the complete supply chain, in this exploration, first, the supply chain related theory is elaborated. Then, the dynamic model of product recovery in enterprise joint scheduling is established. Finally, based on the differential game theory (based on the continuity of nonlinear differential equation function) and Hamilton function, the optimal scheduling strategies with manufacturer and retailer as the main recycling body in the complete supply chain are calculated respectively. The results show that the product recovery rate with manufacturer as the main recycling body is higher than that with retailer as the main recycling body. There is no transfer price in the recovery based on the manufacturer. However, in the recovery based on the retailer, if the transfer price increases, the product recovery rate of the system will also increase; if the transfer price increases, the manufacturer’s instant profit will appropriately increase; if the transfer price value is high $(v=1.5)$, the manufacturer’s instant profit is higher. If the transfer payment is low $(v=1)$, the instant profit of manufacturer with manufacturer as the main recycling body will be first lower and then higher than that with retailer as the main recycling body. When the system is stable, the instant profit with the manufacturer as the main recycling body is higher than that with retailer as the main recycling body; the total profit of the manufacturer with the retailer as the recycling body is first lower and then higher than that with the manufacturer as the main recycling body. Whether the transfer payment is high or low, the retailer’s profit level is higher when the manufacturer is the main recycling body. When the retailer is the main recycling body, the retailer’s profit level is inversely proportional to the transfer payment. Finally, in the centralized supply chain environment, enterprises can maximize their total profits and promote the good development.

In today’s sophisticated global marketplace, supply chains are complex nonlinear systems in the presence of different types of uncertainties, including supply-demand and delivery uncertainties. Though up to now, some features of these systems are studied, there are still many aspects of these systems which need more attention. This necessitates more research studies on these systems. Hence, in this study, we propose a variable-order fractional supply chain network. The dynamic of the system is investigated using the Lyapunov exponent and bifurcation diagram. It is demonstrated that a minor change in the system’s fractional-derivative may dramatically affect its behavior. Then, distributed consensus tracking of the multi-agent network is studied. To this end, a control technique based on the sliding concept and Chebyshev neural network estimator is offered. The system’s stability is demonstrated using the Lyapunov stability theorem and Barbalat’s lemma. Finally, through numerical results, the proposed controller’s excellent performance for distributed consensus tracking of multi-agent supply chain network is demonstrated.

With the continuous advancement of the trend of economic globalisation and the in-depth development of personalised services, the manufacturing mode has begun to change to service-oriented manufacturing, and the focus of enterprises has gradually shifted from the industrial chain to the supply chain. However, at present, accidents often occur in the supply chain around products, such as changes in orders, lack of resources in a short period of time, etc. These interference events are difficult to control and cause great damage to the normal operation and economic interests of enterprises for a long time. Therefore, it is necessary to study the optimisation methods of enterprise supply chain. Therefore, it is necessary to study the optimisation methods of enterprise supply chain. The study uses system dynamics to analyses employee counterproductive behaviour, develops a disturbance management model incorporating employee behavioural factors, and solves it with an improved particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm. The experimental results show that the maximum number of noninferior solutions obtained by the improved PSO algorithm is 14 and 12, respectively. Compared with the GA_TOM (Genetic Algorithm_TOM), the improved algorithm is closer to the ideal pareto front. In the MS index, the average and minimum values obtained by the improved PSO algorithm are 0.57 and 0.609, respectively, which can cover more ideal pareto fronts. It shows that the algorithm effectively improves the stability and security of the supply chain, and provides a practical reference for the supply chain optimisation of manufacturing enterprises.

The bargaining theory of capital structure implies that when firms raise their leverage, their suppliers will raise their own leverage in response, so as to maintain strength in negotiations with important customers. In contrast, the theory of firm-specific investments implies that when a customer raises its leverage, a firm will respond by lowering its own leverage to minimize the risk of bankruptcy. We test these theories by examining the relationship between the leverage decisions of suppliers and customers. We find that a firm’s leverage is positively associated with its customer’s leverage. Moreover, consistent with the bargaining theory, we find that the positive leverage relationship is stronger if the customer has a higher ex-ante bargaining power. We also find some support for the relation-specific investment theory of capital structure in that the positive leverage relationship is weaker if the supplier–customer relationship requires more relation-specific investments.

We examine if firms with directors with related industry expertise (DRIs), or directors that are supply chain partners, exhibit a greater propensity to forecast earnings, and improve the specificity and accuracy of forecasts. Using instrumental variables to mitigate endogeneity, we find that DRIs and supply chain partners possess unique insights which improve managerial forecasts especially when there is greater earnings uncertainty (innovations along the supply chain, poor performance, operating in volatile industries). We use director deaths as exogenous shocks to board composition and confirm results. Results indicate that DRIs play an informational role in enhancing voluntary disclosures and improving corporate transparency.

Developed countries, led by the United States and the European Union, have stepped up security review of supply chains and adopted a series of restrictive policies and protectionist measures to reshape a more secure, sustainable, and risk-controllable supply chain. A key objective of the West’s supply chain strategy is to wean their economies off Chinese influence by resorting to discriminatory policies. Supply chain interventionism on national security grounds violates market rules on which the global supply chain is based, and also runs counter to the principles of nondiscrimination and liberalization embedded in the multilateral trade governance architecture. Global supply chain reshuffles will take time and incur huge costs, leaving ample room for Beijing to make necessary adjustments and bolster its position in global supply networks.

This paper analyzes the dynamics of supply chain diversification in a contested East Asia and their implications for India–South Korea cooperation in the post-COVID-19 era. Major powers have sought to restructure supply chain by designing a strategy to reduce their reliance on China-controlled supply chain. The United States–China trade and technological war, Asian regional powers’ escalating conflicts with a rising China, and pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions have played key roles in driving the restructuring process. India and South Korea, Asia’s two major economies, have also re-evaluated their supply chain strategies. As this paper explains, on the one hand, India has been striving to emerge as a supply chain hub for key industries by ending China’s control. On the other hand, South Korea has also been aiming to diversify its supply chain beyond China under the New Southern Policy. Against that backdrop, critical developments concerning supply chain cooperation have occurred between the two countries amid the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic has not only facilitated the opening of high-level political exchanges on supply chain but also brought tangible outcomes, as Korean companies have become active participants in India’s quest to build an India-centric supply chain. I conclude this study by contending that the two countries are “natural partners” in reshaping the supply chain dynamics in East Asia in the post-COVID-19 era.