Operational decisions of live-streaming platform supply chain based on control power: considering the dual preferences of consumers

AbstractAs the problem of live streaming with goods ‘overturned’ has also emerged, it is crucial for supply chain members to make optimal decisions to maintain long-term cooperation relationship. Based on this background, we construct a new supply chain structure composed of a fresh food supplier, an online celebrity live-streaming base (OCLB) and a platform channel, and establish three game-theoretic models: the centralised decision model (CDM), two decentralised decision models (DDMs) led by fresh food supplier (P-S-L model) and OCLB (P-L-S model) to further explore the optimal decisions. The results show that, when consumers have higher dual preferences of freshness and live-streaming recommendation level, in the P-S-L model, it is in the best interest of the supply chain as a whole to pursue ‘neutral’ control power and choose a ‘moderate pricing and decent quality’ strategy, but in the P-L-S model, the OCLB as the dominant party can pursue higher control power, increase the selling price, or relax its preservation technology upgrading program, which may compensate for the loss of high preservation costs. This study follows the popular topic of live-streaming with goods, opens up new ideas to improve the high profitability of supply chain enterprises.Keywords: Three-echelon fresh agricultural products supply chain (FAPSC)control powerfresh-keeping effortlive-streaming recommendationgame theory AcknowledgementsWe thank the Editor(s) and the anonymous referees for their constructive and insightful comments, which help us significantly improve the quality of our paper.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementNo data were used to support this study.Notes1 https://t.cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/2183570524/8226a45c02700yicw.2 https://t.cj.sina.com.cn/articles/view/2828427882/a896626a01900ji34.3 https://www.iimedia.cn/c400/84524.html.4 https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1701887463907722754&wfr=spider&for=pc.5 https://new.qq.com/omn/20200525/20200525A0FHE300.html.6 http://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/gsnews/2022-03-09/doc-imcwiwss4968463.shtml7 https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1681971104329381979&wfr=spider&for=pc.Additional informationFundingThis paper was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (19BGL091), the Humanity and Social Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (17JYA630130) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017T100479).Notes on contributorsXiao ZhangXiao Zhang was born in Dezhou, Shandong, China, in 1998. She received the B.S. degree in Engineering Management from Shandong University of Science and Technology in 2019. She is currently a master student in Management Science and Engineering at the Business School of Qingdao University in China. Her research interests include low carbon supply chain management and platform supply chain optimisation.Guitao ZhangGuitao Zhang received the M.S. degree in 2004 in automation control from Shandong University, Jinan, and the Ph.D. degree in 2015 in management science and engineering from Qingdao University. He is currently an associate professor with Business School, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China. He has contributed 3 journal articles to professional journals including Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Mathematical Problems in Engineering and Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society. His current research interests include Logistics and Supply Chain Management.Hao SunHao Sun received the M.S. degree in 2007 and the Ph.D. degree in 2010 both in management science and engineering, both from Southeast University, Nanjing, China. He is currently an associate professor with Business School, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China. He has contributed 10 journal articles to professional journals such as Omega, Journal of Cleaner Production, Resources, Conservation and Recycling and Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization. His current research interests include Supply Chain Management and behavioral operations management.Cong ShiCong Shi was born in Huaian, Jiangsu, China, in 1999. He is currently a master student with Business School, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China. His current research interests include logistics and supply chain management, and supply chain network equilibrium enabled by blockchain.Guoqing ZhangGuoqing Zhang is a Professor, in Supply Chain and Logistics Optimisation Research Centre, Department of Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, Canada. His research interest includes logistics optimisation and supply chain management. He has contributed more than 60 journal articles to professional journals such as Operations research, Omega, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Transportation Research Part E, Computers & Industrial Engineering, etc.