Production outsourcing decision in the presence of consumer’s preference uncertainty

The authors investigate upstream coopetition and competition in a supply chain in the context of a high-quality brand manufacturer’s strategy on upstream outsourcing and e-commerce platform’s strategy on downstream information disclosure. The high-quality brand manufacturer outsources production and sells through an e-commerce platform, where a low-quality manufacturer also sells. The high-quality manufacturer may outsource to a third manufacturer who produces only the brand manufacturer’s high-quality product, maintaining a competition relationship with the low-quality manufacturer (competition strategy). The high-quality brand manufacturer also has the option to outsource to the low-quality manufacturer, entering into a coopetition relationship (coopetition strategy). The consumers have knowledge about the quality of the two products, but they are uncertain about their quality preference. That is, they are not sure which of the two quality-differentiated products available in the market will meet their own needs. Their uncertainty can be eliminated by the e-commerce platform’s disclosure of preference-revealing information. They find that the brand manufacturer prefers the coopetition strategy when the ratio of the two products’ cost-quality efficiencies is very low or moderate. The e-commerce platform has an incentive to disclose preference-revealing information when the ratio of the two products’ cost-quality efficiencies is moderate or high. They show the optimal strategies of the supply chain with the brand manufacturer’s outsourcing strategy and the platform’s information disclosure strategy, and they also extend the discussion to the impacts of several related issues.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2023.103180
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1366554523001680
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13665545
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Sun, Fei
  • Chen, Jing
  • Yang, Hui
  • 0000-0002-8747-8060
  • Chen, Bintong
  • Wan, Zeying
• Publication Date: 2023-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References;
• Pagination: 103180
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review
  • Volume: 175
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 1366-5545
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13665545

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Consumer preferences; Contracting out; Manufacturing; Supply chain management; Uncertainty
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Freight Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01886579
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 28 2023 4:57PM