A Survey and Analysis of Outsourcing in East China

The aim of this study is to investigate whether outsourcing activities in east china are associated with a theoretical framework derived from the literature. By the methodology of Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS), the results of survey indicate that outsourcing will more extensively practiced in the future, the principal outsourcing motivation are to reduce costs and focus on core businesses. The purchasing outsourcing has the largest correlation coefficients with short-term contract, the total outsourcing has a significant correlation coefficient with long-term contract at the level of =0.05. The findings indicate that high service quality and mutual trust are the main criteria for selecting outsourcing vendors. However, it is found that outsourcing satisfaction is generally low. The main benefits of outsourcing are to reduce cost, concentrate on core businesses and improve the service quality, while the main problems with outsourcing are legal disputes, disclosure of commercial secrets and conflicts with vendors.Outsourcing; strategy; contract; survey

Environmental certification in a differentiated duopoly

The articleaims to explore the role of horizontal product differentiation in promoting/hindering firm’s participation in environmental certification. To this purpose, we consider a differentiated duopoly model where firms compete in both prices and environmental qualities. The result shows that when the level of horizontal differentiation relative to the degree of vertical differentiation is sufficiently high, only the symmetric equilibrium where both firms choose to or both choose not to certify their products exists. Asymmetric equilibrium (vertical dominance equilibrium) occurs when the level of horizontal differentiation relative to the degree of vertical differentiation is sufficiently low

Supply chain contracting coordination for fresh products with fresh-keeping effort

Purpose – Fresh product loss rates in supply chain operations are particularly high due to the nature of perishable products. This paper aims to maximize profit through the contract between retailer and supplier. The optimized prices for the retailer and the supplier, taking the fresh-keeping effort into consideration, are derived. Design/methodology/approach – To address this issue, we consider a two-echelon supply chain consisting of a retailer and a supplier (i.e., wholesaler) for two scenarios: centralized and decentralized decision-making. We start from investigating the optimal decision in the centralized supply chain and then comparing the results with those of the decentralized decision. Meanwhile, a fresh-keeping cost-sharing contract and a fresh-keeping cost- and revenue-sharing contract are designed. Numerical examples are provided, and managerial insights are discussed at end. Findings – The results show that (a) the centralized decision is more profitable than the decentralized decision; (b) a fresh product supply chain can only be coordinated through a fresh-keeping cost- and revenue-sharing contract; (c) the optimal retail price, wholesale price and fresh-keeping effort can all be achieved; (d) the profit of a fresh product supply chain is positively related to consumers’ sensitivity to freshness and negatively correlated with their sensitivity to price. Originality/value – Few studies have considered fresh-keeping effort as a decision variable in the modelling of supply chain. In this paper, a mathematical model for the fresh-keeping effort and for price decisions in a supply chain is developed. In particular, fresh-keeping cost sharing contract and revenue-sharing contract are examined simultaneously in the study of the supply chain coordination problem

Optimal strategies of automakers with demand and credit price disruptions under the dual-credit policy

In this paper, a production and pricing decision model for automakers under the dual-credit policy is formulated. Then, with consideration of demand and credit price disruptions, a nonlinear programming model that maximizes automakers’ profit and constrains the production of fuel vehicles (FVs) and new energy vehicles (NEVs) is investigated. Furthermore, four strategies that involve adjusting the production or price of FVs and NEVs are proposed, and four optimal solutions for each strategy are obtained. Finally, 16 scenarios are comprehensively analyzed, and a case study involving demand and credit price disruptions is conducted. The results show that the dual-credit policy has a positive impact on the development of NEVs, especially in early stages of NEV development. The FV credit coefficient has a significantly positive impact on the probability of automakers adopting adjustment strategies, while the NEV credit coefficient has almost no such impact. Moreover, automakers are inclined to adjust the prices of NEVs or the production of FVs to cope with demand and credit price disruptions

Joint procurement and pricing of fresh produce for multiple retailers with a quantity discount contract

This study considers a fresh produce supply chain consisting of one supplier and multiple retailers with a quantity discount contract in two scenarios—independent procurement and joint procurement. The supplier’s optimal pricing decision and the retailers’ optimal procurement decisions under the quantity discount contract are investigated. Furthermore, the impact of the deterioration rate on the profit of supply chains is examined. The results show that joint procurement is more profitable than independent procurement and guarantees a win-win outcome. More importantly, retailers will be motivated to form a grand coalition when the total profit can be rationally allocated among them

The acquisition of quality information in a supply chain with voluntary vs. mandatory disclosure

Quality information acquisition and disclosure have significant ramifications for supply chain members. This paper investigates the interaction between a manufacturer's product quality information acquisition and different product quality information disclosure systems in a supply chain wherein the manufacturer can privately acquire the precise quality information of its product by affordable means initially. We consider two different quality information disclosure systems for the quality information acquisition: voluntary disclosure (i.e., the manufacturer determines whether to disclose the quality information that he has acquired), and mandatory disclosure (i.e., the manufacturer is mandated to disclose the quality information that he has acquired). We examine the effects of voluntary disclosure and mandatory disclosure on the equilibrium strategies and payoffs of the manufacturer and the retailer and on the consumer surplus. It is shown that mandatory disclosure significantly reduces the manufacturer's incentive to acquire the precise product quality information and leads to a reduction in the product quality information that the retailer and the consumers can receive. Interestingly, although the manufacturer is ex‐ante better off, the retailer's ex‐ante payoff and the expected consumer surplus become lower under mandatory disclosure, as opposed to voluntary disclosure of product quality information

A survey and analysis of outsourcing in East China

The aim of this study is to investigate whether outsourcing activities in east china are associated with a theoretical framework derived from the literature. By the methodology of Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS) , the results of survey indicate that outsourcing will more extensively practiced in the future, the principal outsourcing motivation are to reduce costs and focus on core businesses. The purchasing outsourcing has the largest correlation coefficients with short-term contract, the total outsourcing has a significant correlation coefficient with long-term contract at the level of α=0.05. The findings indicate that high service quality and mutual trust are the main criteria for selecting outsourcing vendors. However, it is found that outsourcing satisfaction is generally low. The main benefits of outsourcing are to reduce cost, concentrate on core businesses and improve the service quality, while the main problems with outsourcing are legal disputes, disclosure of commercial secrets and conflicts with vendors

Inventory optimization model considering consumer shift and inventory transshipment in dual-channel supply chains

In this paper we consider a dual-channel supply chain which consists of an online store and multiple independent retail stores. In this system, customer shift induces inventory competition while transshipment brings inventory cooperation, both of which inuences inventory optimization and control. Therefore we respectively construct inventory optimization models under the two situations: customer shift and inventory transshipment. Specifically, unilateral customer shift and inventory transshipment are considered, and a one-for-one replenishment strategy is applied. We first solve the equilibrium state probability of on-hand inventory through Markov chain theory, then optimize performance measure (i.e., the total costs) to obtain the optimal basic inventory level. Finally, we analyze the impact of customer shift rate and inventory transshipment rate on the inventory strategies through numerical simulation, and further compare the differences in inventory decisions between the above two situations, which prove that inventory cooperation brought by inventory transshipment is not necessarily better than inventory competition brought by customer shift. In addition, we discuss several insights that are evident from the parametric analysis of the model

Integrated schedule of order picking and delivery for instant delivery

In this study, we introduce an integrated schedule of order picking and delivery for instant delivery. Order picking, including order batching and picking sequencing, is scheduled online under real-time order arrival, which integrates order delivery by depicting order location dispersion in an online order picking strategy. Order delivery, including delivery person assignment and route planning, is modeled to minimize the total duration of order fulfillment by considering the influence of the order picking completion time. A rule-based online order picking strategy is established, and a customized ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is proposed to optimize order delivery. Experiments on 16 simulated instances of different scales demonstrate that our online order picking schedule considering order delivery outperforms existing approaches and that the customized ACO algorithm for order delivery is effective