The quality of agri-foods in e-supply chains confronts more threats than that in the traditional agri-food supply chain. However, most of the existing studies focusing on the quality problems of fresh agri-products are mainly cases studies and statistical analyses, and they do not take into account the farmers’ willingness to comply with safe agri-food supply procedures. To solve the supply quality problems of fresh agri-foods and help participators make a better choice, the decision-making behavior on the supply quality of agri-foods in the e-supply chain was deeply studied in this paper using game theory. Some factors related to the decision behavior of the supply chain were analyzed, including the supervision intension of the government, the rights protection consciousness of consumers, and the intensity of punishment for poor-quality agri-foods. These factors have an important influence on the farmers’ willingness to provide high-quality products and e-business’ probability of inspection. Compared with three different decision models of agri-food e-supply chains, the results show that the decentralized decision model is better than the centralized model from the view of quality protection. The behavior of members of the supply chain is as follows: the farmers’ willingness to supply high-quality agri-foods increases with the increase in the consumers’ consciousness of their rights and the government’s supervision intensity. The “experience deviation” phenomenon also occurs when a new e-business makes a decision about its quality inspection behavior in this e-supply chain where the quality information is traceable. As such, e-business enterprises should reduce their quality inspection behavior based on the increase in the government’s supervision intensity. This happens to be opposite to the traditional experience where quality information is not traceable. This study not only extends the research framework of the novel electronic supply chain, but also provides a certain reference for the subsequent research and e-business practices of fresh produce in developing countries.
Based on the realistic concerns about the improvement of the quality of agricultural foods (agri-foods), the optimal supply quality and price subsidy strategies of producers and sellers for the two-level agricultural supply chain, composed of a producer and a seller, are studied. The differences in the quality safety, price, and market demand of agri-foods in the supply chain are compared and analyzed. The study found that the maximum profit of supply chain participants decreases with the increase of price elasticity of demand. When the quality of agri-foods is upgraded in a producer-led manner, the quality of agri-foods in the supply chain does not undergo substantial improvement, and the maximum profit of agri-foods operators is insensitive to the price elasticity of demand at this time. When the seller-led quality upgrading is launched, the maximum profit of the producer decreases with the increase of the quality elasticity of demand, the maximum profit of the seller increases with the increase of the quality elasticity of demand, and the total profit of the supply chain also increases with the increase of the quality elasticity of demand under the centralized decision situation. The quality and safety of agri-foods as well as the overall profit of the supply chain can be improved most effectively under the centralized control decision with the goal of maximizing the supply chain benefits. In terms of quality and price, quality improvement actions of agri-foods driven by supply-side producers are less effective than those driven by demand-side consumption. In addition, cost-sharing contracts can significantly improve the quality of agri-foods in the supply chain and make them more “high-quality and low-price” than before the adoption of cost-sharing contracts.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.