Backup Agreement as a Coordination Mechanism in a Decentralized Fruit Chain in a Developing Country

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article presents an original model for assessing the impact of the reserve contract on the supply chain profitability. Colombian small producers’ citrus supply chains were chosen as the object of the study. The profitability increase models have a great importance for agricultural supply chains in the current environment. However, the article has a number of shortcomings. Firstly, the economic mechanism of the 53% increase in supply chain profit with the backup agreement implementation has not been disclosed. The backup agreement impact on the profit distribution between the supply chain echelons is obvious. However, the possibility of the overall profits increase is debatable. What economic mechanism will cause this growth? Secondly, the article stated that 99 out of 283 producers were studied. It is necessary to clarify how the producers surveyed were selected? Also it is necessary to provide evidence that the sample is representative. Thirdly, there are a number of inaccuracies in the article. So, in table 2, the data in the columns “with agreement” and “without agreement” are swapped. The lines 419-420 contain the controversial statement "The backup agreement is intended to reduce the uncertainty impact on demand". In fact, the uncertainty of demand affects the income of participants in the supply chain.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, 

First of all, I would like to thank you for your willingness to review the article entitled "Backup Agreement as a coordination mechanism in a decentralized fruit chain in a developing country". 

In accordance with the requested changes to the manuscript, I would like to notify you that the following corrections have been included in the attached document. 

Please review the revision response letter attached to the following comment. 

Thank you very much.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors present a manuscript related to a very interesting topic. They propose the concept of backup agreement as a coordination mechanism in a decentralized fruit chain. From the geographical point of view, they refer to a developing country. The paper is quite well structured and written; however, I think it can be improved. My suggestions are reported below:

• First of all the abstract should be improved. I suggest to describe better the research gap that the authors aim to fill. In particular, some repetitions should be avoided (e.g., the sentence "no works are identified in literature applying backup agreements in the agricultural supply chains even less on small producers" is written twice in lines 10 and 21).
• A literature review section is missing; if you prefer to have the literature analysis in the introduction section, I think it should be expanded. I suggest to define better the research gap you aim to fill; please, consider that some references should be cited when you talk about collaborations in food supply chains. Giallombardo et al. [R1] have recently proposed the horizontal collaborations between heterogenous suppliers increasing profit and reducing emissions. Soysal et al. [R2] analyzed the benefits of horizontal collaboration through a case study involving perishable products.  I suggest also to cite the comprehensive review by Susanto et al. [R3] about the factors, which influence collaboration in fresh supply chains. I think that [R1] and [R2] can be easily inserted in one (or more) of the 4 dimensions you have identified in Figure 1.

[R1] Giallombardo et al. (2021). An Integrated Model for the Harvest, Storage and Distribution of Perishable Crops, Applied Sciences, Vol. 11, No. 15. 

[R2] Soysal et al. (2018). Modeling a green inventory routing problem for perishable products with horizontal collaboration, Computers and Operations Research, Vol. 89, pp. 168-182. 

[R3] Susanto et al. (2021). The factors influencing modeling of collaborative performance supply chain: A review on fresh produce, Uncertain Supply Chain Management, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 373-392. 

• Please, improve the quality of Figure 3: I see "Series1", it is better to be more specific.
• Please, can you be more precise in defining your model of Section 4? I mean, is it an operations research model or not? Is it linear or non-linear? I suggest to define better the general characteristics of this model. 
• You have proposed and tested a model/framework, by taking into account a case study in the food sector. With the aim to give more value to your proposal, I suggest to add a further section or subsection with some managerial insights or implications. 
• In the conclusions, please explain the main limitations of your research and add some possible future developments of your research.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, 

First of all, I would like to thank you for your willingness to review the article entitled "Backup Agreement as a coordination mechanism in a decentralized fruit chain in a developing country". 

In accordance with the requested changes to the manuscript, I would like to notify you that the following corrections have been included in the attached document. 

Please review the revision response letter attached to the following comment. 

Thank you very much.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have successfully addressed all my comments. I recommend acceptance. 

Author Response

Thank you for your comments, we made an English reading to improve the manuscript.