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Supplier Encroachment and Quality Disclosure Strategy in an E-supply Chain with Blockchain Technology

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Abstract

This paper explores quality disclosure strategy in an e-supply chain including a supplier and an e-retailer driven by blockchain technology (BT), wherein the supplier possesses private quality information and has the option to encroach on the end market. We investigate the no-encroachment and encroachment scenarios under the three quality disclosure strategies (i.e., non-disclosure strategy, voluntary disclosure strategy and BT-supported disclosure strategy). The impact of supplier encroachment and firms’ preference for disclosure strategies are examined. The analysis shows that regardless of the strategy chosen, encroachment always benefits the supplier but, under certain conditions, benefits the e-retailer. Interestingly, with no-encroachment, both the supplier and the e-retailer have the same preference for disclosure strategies. With encroachment, however, the supplier prefers the voluntary disclosure strategy when both the quality variability and direct selling cost are small, and BT’s operation cost is relatively large; otherwise, he prefers the BT-supported disclosure strategy. For the e-retailer, she always prefers both the voluntary and BT-supported disclosure strategies. Additionally, it is observed that the BT-supported disclosure strategy emerges as optimal for both the supplier and the e-retailer when faced with significant quality variability, regardless of encroachment. Encroachment and adopting BT can generate more consumer surplus under certain conditions. Finally, we extend the basic model by considering simultaneous quantity decision and find that keying findings are robustness. Afterwards, management insights are covered and given.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thanks the reviewers for their careful reading of the manuscript and constructive comments to improve the quality of this paper. This work has been supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), under Grant No. 7211001013, the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province, under Grant No. 2308085QG232 and the University Scientific Research Project of Anhui, under Grant No. 2023AH051120.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Huimin Zhang, Yan Yan & Fujun Hou

  2. School of Management Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, 243032, China

    Zhenkai Lou

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  1. Huimin Zhang
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Correspondence to Fujun Hou.

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Additional information

Huimin Zhang is a doctoral candidate of management science in School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, China. Her research interests include decision theory and supply chain management.

Zhenkai Lou received his Ph.D. degree in School of Management and Economics from Beijing Institute of Technology, China. He is currently an associate professor in Anhui University of Technology. His research interests include decision theory and supply chain management.

Yan Yan is a doctoral candidate of management science in School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, China. Her research interests include decision theory and supply chain management.

Fujun Hou received his Ph.D. degree in School of Management and Economics from Beijing Institute of Technology, China. He is currently a professor in Beijing Institute of Technology. His research interests include group decision and supply chain management. He has published more than 30 papers in technical journals.

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Zhang, H., Lou, Z., Yan, Y. et al. Supplier Encroachment and Quality Disclosure Strategy in an E-supply Chain with Blockchain Technology. J. Syst. Sci. Syst. Eng. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-024-5601-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-024-5601-4

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