Abstract: With the increasingly serious problems of resource waste and environmental degradation brought about by traditional supply chains, the operation and management model of green and sustainable supply chains has become a hot spot for governments, enterprises, and scholars. To meet the requirements for government policies and regulations, manufacturers have begun to make green R&D and innovation to reduce environmental pollution. However, manufacturers cannot strictly control all processes, and the failure of green technology research and development always exists. At the same time, manufacturers need to deal with consumer concerns about the authenticity of green products and require traceability of products when green technology R&D is successful.
This study considers that the green supply chain operates on traditional online platforms and blockchain platforms, respectively. In each mode of operation, we establish the model considering the success or failure of the manufacturer’s green technology R&D. At the same time, the government subsidies and retailer’s service level, platform service costs, blockchain marginal use costs, fixed costs, and other blockchain-related attributes are further introduced. Through the construction of the manufacturer-led Stackelberg game model and Cartelization cooperation model, the paper investigates the supply chain members’ optimal decision-making under four different situations that operate on traditional online platforms and blockchain platforms, and analyzes the influence of changes in parameters such as the using cost of the blockchain on the optimal decision-making of supply chain members.
Specifically, the manufacturer and retailer make two-stage decentralized decision-making independently under the traditional platform. In the first stage, the manufacturer first determines the manufacturer’s green R&D effort level. If green technology R&D is successful, then the retailer will determine the marketing effort level. However, if R&D fails, the retailer will not conduct green marketing but directly determine the product price. In the second stage, if R&D is successful, the manufacturer will determine the online service level, and on this basis, the retailer determines the sales price of the product. If R&D fails, it will make independent decisions. When the manufacturer and retailer operate through the blockchain platform, the two parties will adopt the cooperation model, which aims to maximize the overall profit of the supply chain. When green technology R&D is successful, they will jointly determine the green R&D level of the manufacturer and the green marketing level of the retailer.
The results of this paper mainly include the following: (1)Whether it is a traditional online platform or a blockchain platform, the optimal decision-making under the successful R&D of green technology will be better than the optimal decision when green technology R&D fails. This is because the green product can obtain government subsidies, further expand market demand and increase product sales prices to obtain higher profits when green technology R&D is successful. (2)The blockchain platform can eliminate the wrong service cost of traditional online platforms and provide better service levels. The cooperation model between members is also better than the traditional decentralized decision-making model. (3)The indirect benefits, marginal usage costs, and fixed costs of the blockchain platform determine whether the supply chain members use blockchain. The indirect benefits brought by the blockchain platform have a relatively large impact. With a decline in the level of benefit, the retailer’s sales prices have risen rapidly, but the profits have fallen sharply. At this time, retailers will tend to adopt traditional online platforms. (4)Regardless of whether green technology R&D is successful or not, the profits of manufacturers under the blockchain platform are higher than those under the traditional online platform. This is because manufacturers and retailers can operate in a cooperative manner through the blockchain platform. In summary, the results provide decision support for the members of the supply chain to adopt green technology R&D and the blockchain platform and provide theoretical and methodological references for the application and practice of blockchain technology in the green supply chain. This study also presents a new direction for further study.

Key words: green technology R&D, uncertainty, blockchain, Cartelization model, channel mode selection

摘要： 本文研究了绿色技术研发结果不确定时制造商与零售商在传统线上平台以及区块链平台进行销售时的渠道模式选择问题。同时考虑服务水平差异性和营销努力水平,运用斯塔克伯格博弈和卡特尔模型,分析了研发结果不确定时基于传统线上平台和区块链平台四种不同决策模式下的最优绿色技术研发水平、营销水平、服务水平、定价与利润,并对四种情形进行了比较分析。研究结果表明:(1)不论是传统线上平台还是区块链平台,绿色技术研发成功时的制造商与零售商的利润均高于研发失败时的利润。(2)制造商与零售商选择何种渠道模式主要取决于区块链平台带来的间接收益水平。(3)零售商的利润随着区块链平台带来的间接收益的下降而下降,当间接收益下降到一定程度时,零售商倾向于采取传统线上平台。

关键词: 绿色技术研发, 不确定性, 区块链, 卡特尔模型, 渠道模式选择