Remanufacturing Mode Selection Considering Different Low-Carbon Preferences of Consumers

In today’s increasingly serious environmental problems, a growing number of enterprises are upgrading remanufacturing as an important corporate strategy. This paper compares two third-party remanufacturing models: the entrusting and Authorizing Models, and introduces two different levels of consumer low-carbon preferences: medium and high. By establishing game equations, we find the equilibrium solution of each model. The results reveal that in the basic model, OEM tends to choose the Authorizing Model when consumers have a pronounced quality bias against remanufactured products. Contrary to intuition, TRM always prefers the Entrusting Model. In scenarios where consumers possess medium low-carbon preferences, OEM tends to choose the Authorizing Model when consumers have a high bias against the quality of the remanufactured products or a low bias against the carbon emissions of the new products. Conversely, OEM tends to choose the entrusting remanufacturing model under the opposite conditions. In scenarios where consumers express high low-carbon preferences, the situation becomes the complete opposite. When consumers exhibit a low bias against remanufactured products’ quality or a high bias against carbon emissions from new products, OEM tends to choose the Authorizing Model. Conversely, OEM prefers the Entrusting Model when consumers’ biases differ. In addition, the consumer surplus and social welfare of the Entrusting Model are higher than those of the Authorizing Model, regardless of the research scenario.