Research on Pricing and Effort Investment Decisions for Dual-Channel Fresh Product Supply Chain Under the Participation of Third-Party Logistics Provider
This study takes the dual-channel fresh product supply chain involving the participation of third-party logistics (3PL) as the background to explore how 3PL makes choices between homogeneous and differentiated logistics service strategies and how the supply chain formulates optimal decisions under d...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Systems |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/13/7/538 |
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| Summary: | This study takes the dual-channel fresh product supply chain involving the participation of third-party logistics (3PL) as the background to explore how 3PL makes choices between homogeneous and differentiated logistics service strategies and how the supply chain formulates optimal decisions under different logistics service strategies to achieve maximum benefits. This paper constructs a sequential game model of the three-tier supply chain composed of 3PL, a supplier, and a retailer; uses the consumer utility function to describe market demand; and considers different logistics service strategies adopted by 3PL. It compares and analyzes the equilibrium strategies under the traditional retail channel (O Model), the homogeneous cold-chain service dual-channel model (D1 Model), and the differentiated cold-chain service dual-channel model (D2 Model). The results show the following: (1) The D1 Model reduces the transportation cost of the supply chain through economies of scale. Under the D2 Model, the transportation and sales prices of the offline channels are higher than those of the online channels, while the online marketing effort is higher than that of the offline channels. (2) The profits generated by the dual-channel models (D1 Model and D2 Model) are both higher than those of O Model. In most cases, the D1 Model generates the highest system profit. However, in scenarios where consumers are highly sensitive to freshness and marketing efforts, the system profit of the D2 Model is higher than that of the D1 Model. (3) The supply chain has lower pricing and effort input when consumers are more sensitive to prices and higher pricing and effort input when consumers are more sensitive to freshness. These findings contribute valuable insights to the field of supply chain management, particularly in the context of fresh product supply chains involving 3PL. They underscore the importance of considering consumer behavior and logistics service strategies in optimizing supply chain performance and highlight the potential trade-offs between standardization and differentiation in logistics services. |
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| ISSN: | 2079-8954 |