Research On The Choice Of Fresh Agricultural Products Sales Channels From The Perspective Of Low-carbon Supply Chain

With the global warming,effective carbon reduction measures to mitigate its negative impacts have been recognized worldwide.The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China advocates for green consumption and promotes the formation of green and low-carbon production and lifestyle,therefore,low-carbon economy is becoming our mainstream.Unlike general products,fresh agricultural products have perishability,so they often suffer from circulation losses during long-distance transportation.In order to reduce circulation losses and satisfy consumers’ concept of "freshness" as the beauty,fresh agricultural product suppliers will provide value-added services such as refrigeration and preservation in logistics,warehousing,and other links to reduce circulation losses,but it will also release a large amount of greenhouse gases.According to China Development Network,greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation industry account for about 10.4%of China’s total carbon emissions,with fruit and vegetable cold chain carbon emissions particularly prominent.Therefore,the fresh supply industry urgently needs to take energy-saving and emission reduction measures.With the rise of e-commerce,fresh agricultural product suppliers have various sales channels,such as offline physical channels,online network channels,and a combination of online and offline dual channels.However,there are not only differences in channel structure among different sales channels,but also differences in carbon intensity.For example,online channels mainly generate significant carbon emissions in transportation and packaging,while physical channels mainly generate significant carbon emissions in sales.In addition,by reviewing relevant domestic and foreign literature on channel carbon emissions and channel selection,it was found that compared to physical channels,online channels do not always have the advantage of low-carbon emission reduction,and there is relatively little literature on exploring sales channel selection from a low-carbon perspective.Therefore,in the face of differences in carbon intensity between different sales channels,what factors will affect channel carbon intensity?How should fresh agricultural product suppliers choose sales channels to better meet the needs of low-carbon development?It has important practical and theoretical significance.This article focuses on the selection of fresh agricultural product sales channels under the low-carbon supply chain,and carries out the following work:it provides a theoretical framework and internal and external influencing factors for the selection of fresh agricultural product suppliers’ sales channels,and constructs a framework for analyzing the influencing factors of fresh agricultural product suppliers’ low-carbon channel selection through the analysis of the ternary interaction determinism and self-efficacy in social cognitive theory;Four driving paths for the selection of sales channels for fresh agricultural product suppliers from a low-carbon perspective were provided,and necessary condition analysis and condition configuration analysis were conducted using fsQCA software;A sales channel selection strategy model for fresh agricultural product suppliers considering cost and carbon labeling was constructed,and the optimal sales channel selection strategy for fresh agricultural product suppliers was analyzed under the conditions of maximizing profits and minimizing carbon intensity.The research on the selection of fresh agricultural product sales channels from the perspective of low-carbon supply chain proposed in this article not only enriches and expands the theory and methods of fresh agricultural product supply chain sales channel selection,but also provides reliable guidance for fresh agricultural product suppliers to comply with the low-carbon development trend and choose low-carbon sales channels in a low-carbon environment.