Pricing Decision-making Of Supply Chain Alliance Considering Heterogeneous Consumers

In recent years,a series of problems such as economy,ecology and energy caused by environmental problems like global warming have attracted great attention of human beings,though,the world economy has developed rapidly.Seeking the operation mode of low-carbon economic development to promote the rapid development of the world's low-carbon economy has become a new focus of global game in the 21 st century.However,it is limited that only a single enterprise develops the low-carbon operation ability.The establishment of strategic alliance mechanism among supply chain enterprises is an important way to realize the competitive advantage of low-carbon economic development.Under the severe greenhouse gas effect and government carbon trading policy,low-carbon consumption concept and low-carbon preference of low-carbon environmental protection consumers have gradually increased,but high emission reduction costs lead to the sale price of low-carbon products far higher than that of ordinary products.At the same time,the different power structure of supply chain will lead to the difference of enterprise pricing strategy and the loss of supply chain efficiency.These practical factors that can not be ignored have a significant impact on the low-carbon operation and management of enterprises,and put forward new challenges for the operation mode of low-carbon supply chain,such as: the selection of strategic alliance partners for enterprises,the rational distribution of production output of low-carbon products and ordinary products,the scientific decision-making of market pricing of two types of products,etc.In view of the above problems,this paper takes the pricing of low-carbon products/ordinary products as the research object,considering the impact of consumer heterogeneity on pricing decision-making of two types of products under the circumstances of different dominant forces in the supply chain system,different strategic alliance partner selection and the introduction of government carbon quota trading policy,and studies the operation strategy of low-carbon supply chain.Firstly,the pricing decision of supplier-led supply chain alliance for heterogeneous consumers is studied.A two-level supply chain consisting of a strong supplier and two retailers is constructed.Considering the different consumer choice behavior characteristics of heterogeneous consumers for low-carbon products and ordinaryproducts,the demand functions of low-carbon products and ordinary products are given through the analysis of consumer utility maximization.The Stackelberg master-slave game theory and profit maximization principle are used to construct the two-level supply chain.The decision model of different alliance modes among supplier-led supply chain enterprises.The optimal pricing and alliance decision are obtained by solving the model.It is found that the single retailer and the leader supplier alliance decision can achieve the same centralized decision-making pricing for their product pricing,while the alliance decision between two retailers can improve the product pricing level and reduce the demand,thus minimizing the total profit of the supply chain.The influence of low-carbon preference consumers' acceptance of low-carbon products on supply chain profit is related to the alliance model,while the proportion of low-carbon consumers always positively affects the total profit of the supply chain,and has nothing to do with the alliance model.Secondly,the pricing decision of retailer-led supply chain alliance for heterogeneous consumers is studied.A two-level supply chain composed of a strong retailer and two manufacturers is constructed.The pricing decision-making under different alliance modes is studied,and the influence of consumption heterogeneity on pricing decision-making and profit of supply chain is analyzed.It is found that a strong retailer and a manufacturer alliance can achieve their product price at the same level as the price under their centralized decision-making,and the marginal profit of another manufacturer's product is equal to the decentralized decision-making.The wholesale price of products increases under the decision of two manufacturers alliance,but its marginal profit is equal to decentralized decision,which leads to the worst profit of supply chain.The discount coefficient of low-carbon consumers' valuation of ordinary products always positively affects the market pricing of ordinary products and the profit of supply chain.The market pricing of both types of products decreases with the increase of the proportion of low-carbon consumers.Finally,the issue of retailer-led alliance pricing and emission reduction decision under carbon quota trading policy is studied.On the basis of supplier-led low-carbon supply chain system,the government's carbon cap trading policy is taken into account,combining with heterogeneous consumers' different choices of low-carbon products and ordinary products.It is found that carbon quota does not affect product alliance pricing decisions and carbon emissions,but affects supply chain performance.In view of the characteristics of heterogeneous consumers' different choicesbetween low-carbon products and ordinary products,this paper studies the optimal pricing strategies under different alliance modes of supply chain enterprises led by different leading forces,and the effects of consumption heterogeneity on the optimal pricing strategies and supply chain performance under different alliance modes,which provides a theoretical basis for enterprise operation decision-making.