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Strategic and Operational Decisions in a Multiple-Channel Supply Chain

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 October 2023) | Viewed by 1528

Special Issue Editors

Department of Industrial and Information Management and Institute of Information Management, College of Management National Cheng Kung University, No.1 University Rd., Tainan City 701, Taiwan
Interests: supply chain; strategy; industrial operation management; knowledge management
Department of Marketing, College of Management, National Chung Hsing University, 145 Xingda Rd., South Dist., Taichung City 40227, Taiwan
Interests: purchasing and distribution strategy; inventory management; supply chain finance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

While enhancing the resilience of their supply chains, firms have been encountering a severe issue, that is, geopolitical risk. To deal with this risk, a multiple-channel supply chain can be a significant strategy. However, building an appropriate multiple-channel supply chain involves a variety of perspectives. Thus, this Special Issue aims to demonstrate how to formulate a strategic decision in a multiple-level supply chain. This Special Issue calls for submissions on various theoretical lenses and methodologies which can overcome the challenges and present new ground providing the formulation of the future development of the issue. Therefore, the studies would be expected to help to advance theories and put theories into practical usage for firms.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • To what extent can geopolitical risk influence a firm’s strategy of multiple-channel supply chain?
  • To what extent can a firm’s strategy of multiple-channel supply chain influence its selection policies of distribution channel, factory location, and outsources?
  • To what extent can a firm’s strategy of multiple-channel supply chain enhance supply chain resilience?
  • To what extent can supply chain vulnerability with global disruptions influence a firm’s multiple-channel supply chain strategy?
  • Decision models for formulating the policies of multiple-channel supply chain.
  • To what extent can port congestion, logistics traffic, environment, political policy issues, and foreign direct investment influence a firm’s multiple-channel supply chain strategy?
  • How can data be collected to provide real-time solutions for a firm’s multiple-channel supply chain strategy?
  • To what extent can the digital supply chain network facilitate the operations of a multiple-channel supply chain?
  • To what extent can the resilience demand/supply modelling facilitate the operations of a multiple-channel supply chain?
  • To what extent can Industrial Revolution 4.0 facilitate the operation of a multiple-channel supply chain?
  • To what extent can resources and global layout influence multiple-channel supply chains?

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Chinho Lin
Dr. Andy Wu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

23 pages, 1392 KiB  
Article
Brand-Owners’ Exclusive Channel Strategies in Multitier Supply Chains: Effect of Contract Unobservability
by Minghua Xiong and Xiaopo Zhuo
Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 7004; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15087004 - 21 Apr 2023
Viewed by 950
Abstract
In multitier supply chains, brand-owners often form exclusive deals with downstream retailers or upstream suppliers. Therefore, the selection of exclusive channel strategies becomes a critical decision for brand owners, resulting in three typical structures: a flexible structure, an exclusive retailing-channel structure, and an [...] Read more.
In multitier supply chains, brand-owners often form exclusive deals with downstream retailers or upstream suppliers. Therefore, the selection of exclusive channel strategies becomes a critical decision for brand owners, resulting in three typical structures: a flexible structure, an exclusive retailing-channel structure, and an exclusive purchasing-channel structure. This paper contributes to the literature by formulating these three representative channel structures in a three-tier supply chain. Both observable and unobservable contracts are considered in each structure. We build game-theoretical models and derive the equilibrium outcomes under observable and unobservable contracts. We find that the exclusive retailing channel is more beneficial for brand-owners, regardless of whether the contracts are observable or unobservable. Additionally, the exclusive retailing channel benefits the entire supply chain more than the exclusive purchasing channel when the level of channel substitutability is low (high) under contract observability (unobservability). With regard to the effect of contract unobservability, we find that it can benefit brand-owners when the level of channel substitutability is low, but it can harm them when the level of channel substitutability is high. Furthermore, we explore the effects of channel substitutability and demonstrate that brand-owners’ performance can be positively and negatively affected by the channel substitutability under contract unobservability. Our findings provide operational strategies for brand-owners to form exclusive channels in a multitier supply chain. Full article
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