Abstract
Competition to gain more market share leads to the development of a dynamic environment and the fulfillment of an improvement cycle in supply networks. In this paper, as the first attempt, two strategic periods based on the introduction and growth phases of supply networks are considered. Each of these periods has its own characteristics and develops different competitive structures. The allocation of market share between competing supply networks is carried out on the extent of their relationships with green orientations in the network. The ownership of supply sources in these networks is replaced by that of relationships (partnership supply) developed by some parent brands. The efforts of each parent brand towards establishing green supply relationships lead to a greater market share for it. Further to competition between the supply networks, co-petition within each network also results in the emergence of different virtual alliance structures. The performance history of each brand and its subsidiary partners in the first period is included in the second period’s assessments and leads to the development or decline of the network. Another dimension of the paper lies in the development of multi-agent transportation arising from the green requirements. Two gaming-based heuristic algorithms are proposed for handling the decentralized decision-making structures in the multi-period multi-stage platform under discussion. To evaluate the taken approach, a real-world inspired case is taken into account. The numerical results prove the better performance of the proposed scheme towards green coverage of the network and, thereupon, increased market share.
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Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
Multi-agent system is a structure where separate entities (independent decision-makers) seek to achieve their goals and, in this regard, compete with each other to exploit common operational resources,
Utility refers to the payoff of each player at each stage of planning according to its objective(s).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Method implementation and optimization, analysis, and data evaluation were performed by SR. The first draft of the manuscript was written by SR and the final version was edited by JB. All authors read and approved the final submitted manuscript.
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Rezaei, S., Behnamian, J. A strategic scheme for partnership supply networks focusing on green multi-agent transportations: a game theory approach. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 81830–81863 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21282-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21282-y