Shareholding strategies for selling green products on online platforms in a two-echelon supply chain

Observing the practical vertical shareholding phenomena in platform retailing, this paper considers two shareholding rates (forward and backward) and proposes three shareholding strategies (forward, backward and cross-shareholding) in a supplier-lead green supply chain to investigate the operation mechanism behind it. Shareholding’s impacts on green investment, prices and profits are provided and the players’ strategy preferences are discussed. We interestingly find that cross-shareholding can be joint optimal when the two shareholding rates are both sufficiently low and thereby Pareto region goes with it. Meanwhile, both the players’ performances can be further improved through certain coordinated ways.