Fresh Agricultural Supply Chain Financing Decisions Involving TPL Under Capital Constraints

In the supply chain,it is very common for each member of the supply chain to have a shortage of funds and thus need financing.However,for small and medium-sized fresh produce enterprises in the fresh produce supply chain,it is usually difficult for them to obtain financing from banks and other financial institutions due to their low credit rating,small scale,and poor-risk resistance ability.Meanwhile,fresh agricultural products are classified as perishable products with characteristics of perishability,seasonal influence,and locality,etc.These characteristics determine that fresh agricultural products need higher freshness requirements in the process of circulation,so professional third-party logistics(TPL)service providers are needed to provide logistics services.Most of the existing research on fresh produce supply chain financing focuses on the secondary supply chain and capital-constrained retailers,but less on the tertiary supply chain under the capital constraint of the suppliers involved in TPL service providers.In this thesis,based on the three-level supply chain of fresh agricultural products,we introduce the internal and external financing of the supply chain and explore the three-level supply chain of fresh agricultural products composed of sole supplier,TPL service provider and retailer under the condition that the level of preservation effort and retail price affect the market demand through the comparative analysis of the solution results.First,this thesis makes the level of preservation effort and retail price of TPL affect market demand assumptions about the problem,and establishes a supply chain game model in which suppliers,retailers,and TPL are in the dominant position under three financing models(i.e.,TPL financing model,retailer financing model and financial institution financing model).The optimal decision variables in the game model and the optimal profit outcome of each member of the supply chain are obtained by inverse solving.On this basis,the results of the three financing models are compared and analyzed to investigate the effects of different power structures on the decision variables and the optimal profits of each member.The study shows that the relationships between the solution results of different power structures under the three financing models are the optimal supplier wholesale price,the level of preservation effort of the TPL service provider,the retail price of the retailer,the ordering volume of the system,and the profit of the supply chain members are all increased compared to the model of financing services provided by banks and other financial institutions.In all three financing models,the relationship between different power structures is that the optimal order quantity of the system,the preservation effort level of the TPL service provider,and the optimal retail price of the retailer are greater when the retailer is dominant than when the supplier is dominant;the optimal wholesale price of the supplier is greater when the supplier is dominant than when the TPL service provider is dominant than when the retailer is dominant;the profit of each member is optimal when it is The profit of each member is optimal when they are in the dominant position.Secondly,to address the problem of how to choose different financing models for the fresh produce supply chain,nine-game models with different financing models under the same power structure are compared and analyzed.The comparative analysis is used to study the effects of different financing service models on each decision variable and the optimal profit of each member.The comprehensive analysis shows that the profit of each member of the supply chain is increased under the internal financing model compared to the external financing model.Retailers and suppliers tend to choose the retailer-provided financing service model when consumers’ preference for freshness effort level is small.Conversely,retailers and suppliers tend to choose the TPL service provider financing model when consumer preference for freshness effort is high,resulting in higher profits.And TPL service providers always tend to choose TPL service providers to provide financing service models.The study of the choice of financing constrained suppliers,on the one hand,in the fresh produce supply chain with the participation of TPL service providers,discusses the impact of different power structures on the optimal decision of the supply chain and enriches the research in the field of the fresh produce supply chain.On the other hand,the profits of supply chain members under different financing modes are compared,which provides a theoretical basis for enterprises’ decision-making in practical situations.Finally,this thesis specifically analyzes and verifies the above conclusions by means of numerical simulation.