Search Results (6)

As environmental issues are of worldwide concern and consumers grow more concerned about the environment, green investments have emerged as a key factor in attracting consumers. To enhance consumer trust in enterprise investments in green and sustainable practices, blockchain technology, with its tamper-resistant and traceable characteristics, is being adopted by an increasing number of enterprises. However, the resulting spillover effect may lead to adverse consequences in a co-opetitive supply chain. This study examines a green supply chain comprising Brand O, a high brand value entity, and a contract manufacturer (CM) with lower brand value. The two parties collaborate through outsourced production while competing in the retail market. Three decision-making models were constructed, namely, without blockchain, Brand O adopting blockchain, and the CM adopting blockchain, and equilibrium solutions were derived to facilitate analysis. We find that Brand O tends not to introduce blockchain in order to avoid the loss of brand value and the spillover of consumer trust. The CM tends to introduce blockchain to enhance its products’ environmental impact and gain an exclusive competitive advantage, targeting the high-end market. These findings guide managers and practitioners in a co-opetitive green supply chain: high brand value retailers should cautiously evaluate blockchain’s impact, staying alert to risks hidden beneath benefits; upstream manufacturers can prioritize blockchain adoption for competitive advantage. Full article

Consumers’ growing interest in the environmental and social impacts of products has increased demand for sustainable fashion items, particularly denim. Emerging technologies such as blockchain technology and labeling certifications have been developed to address sustainability issues by improving supply chain transparency and efficiency. This research investigates the trade-offs consumers make when purchasing sustainable denim jeans and the impact of sociodemographic factors on their decision-making process. Employing a conjoint analysis approach, four attributes were examined: price, brand name, types of materials, and eco-labeling. The results indicated that price is still the most influential factor, followed by material, brand name, and eco-label. Although eco-labeling is of little importance to consumers, it offers valuable insights for effective communication of sustainable practices. Consumers prefer denim with a blockchain eco-label, followed by a fair-trade certificate. This research enhances the understanding of consumer behavior toward sustainable consumption and offers strategic insights for denim producers and marketers. Full article

Frequent environmental incidents in the supply chains of brand-name products have dire consequences on the ecological environment and in terms of social development. There have been few considerations of supply chains and enterprise characteristics included in previous research. This paper focuses on the supply chains of brand-name products, and systematically identifies principal factors that influence environmentally destructive behaviors in the supply chain of brand-name products from internal and external viewpoints of the supply chain. Considering the characteristics of the polluting industries, 416 valid questionnaires were obtained by investigating the supply chain of brand-name products in chemical, mechanical, food, and agricultural products, the light industry, and other industries. The results show that: (1) environmentally destructive behavior is differently exhibited in different industries among the investigated supply chains of brand-name products; (2) the enterprises’ attitudes, policies, and investments in pro-environment approaches play a fundamental role in the environmental management of the brand-name products supply chain; (3) environmental legislation and public supervision have significant effects on the environmental management of the brand-name products supply chain; (4) only when environmental regulation is combined with environmental legislation and public supervision is a restriction of environmentally destructive behavior in the supply chain of brand-name products triggered. Thus, we suggest that the attribution and sharing mechanisms of environmental responsibility in the supply chain of brand-name products should be established; a “push-pull-anchor” mechanism and coordinated co-governance supervision system for environmentally destructive behavior in the supply chain of brand-name products should be built. Full article

Cross-border e-commerce, involving international product transactions via online and mobile platforms, is growing at a dramatic rate around the globe. One of the main concerns of brand firms is preventing counterfeit products from being sold under their names on e-commerce platforms. Counterfeit goods not only create economic losses to both the supply and demand sides, but also undermine efforts to improve sustainability. Proliferating counterfeits harm the brands of supply firms and trust in selling e-commerce platforms. In addition, they discourage participants in the supply chain from investing in social and environmental sustainability. If end-customers have access to detailed and comprehensive product information with a traceability system that can help overcome information uncertainty and asymmetry, losses can be prevented. The result of the pilot test has shown that securely shared in-depth product information among supply chain stakeholders from the supply side to end-customers can help prevent counterfeit goods from proliferating further by enabling consumers to determine the authenticity of products and report forgeries before paying. Full article

Marketing for wines is a determinant tool for several stakeholders within the wine sector, but there are not many studies concerning the topic “wine marketing” and even fewer that take a bibliometric approach. In turn, wine is a strategic agri-food product for the economy of several countries around the world, particularly in Mediterranean countries. Beyond the economic level, wine has an environmental, social, and cultural dimension. All these dimensions have implications in any plan for the wine sector and should be taken into account. In addition, these dimensions change around the world in accordance with different local factors. In this way, sometimes, it is not easy to design adjusted marketing plans for the wine sector, namely, in international markets. Taking the frameworks into account, the main objective of this study is to explore the scientific documents available on scientific platforms, namely, in the Web of Science, related to “wine marketing”. These studies (87 documents) were first explored through bibliometric software, such as the VOSviewer and the Atlas.ti, and then analyzed individually to capture the main insights shown by the scientific literature about wine marketing. To better organize the literature survey, with the information obtained from the bibliometric analysis, the following indexes were identified through factor analysis: “supply index”, “demand index”, “winery strategy index”, “tourism index”, “innovation index”, and “wine characteristics index”. The supply index highlights questions related to new technologies, climate change, logistics in international markets, institutions and regulations, being the main factors that influence wine producers. The demand index stresses the relevance, for consumers, of the relationship between the price and quality of a wine. On the other hand, younger consumers, in general, consume wine outdoors while socializing, giving importance to the label, often when the wine is recommended by someone. Older consumers give greater importance to the wine’s variety and to its region of origin. The winery strategy index shows the importance of questions relating to agri-chains, market differentiation, the history, and the brand. The tourism index brings together aspects associated with the complementarity between activities in the wine sector, wine routes, and contributions from culture and landscape. The innovation index highlights aspects related to the quality and the perceptions of the consumers. Finally, the wine characteristics index shows the little importance given by scientific literature relating to wine marketing and to attributes such as alcohol. A search on the Web of Science for the topic addressed here and “bibliometric” showed that there has been no research carried out with the approach taken here, showing the novelty of this study. Full article

With the development of the Internet, many brand name manufacturers including Apple, Lenovo, and Canon offer remanufactured products through their official website. Confronting the competition from remanufactured products that are available from the manufactured-owned channel, more and more retailers have recognized that customer service level is one of the most important performance metrics and have aggressively attempted to obtain larger market shares by providing high levels of post-sale services. Although numerous researchers have studied various competitive strategies in remanufacturing, to the best of our knowledge, there is little research highlighting whether and how economic performance and sustainability issues related to remanufacturing operations are affected by the retailer’s service levels. In this paper, we fill this gap by developing two models for the closed-loop supply chain where all remanufactured products are available from the manufactured-owned channel, while the equilibrium behavior of the retailer can be characterized under two possible scenarios: (1) Confronting the cannibalization from direct channels where the retailer only responds on prices (i.e., Model P); or (2) on providing competitive prices and high service levels for new products (i.e., Model S). Our analysis suggests that, from managers’ perspective, if the manufacturers care more about economic benefits, encouraging the retailer to provide higher levels of post-sale services is a beneficial strategy. If they are more concerned with environmental performance, Model P is preferred. However, from the angle of environmental groups and agencies, if the level of eco-centrism is too pronounced, though Model S has a greater profitability for both parties, a more significant welfare loss due to environmental hazard is perceived by the society. As a result, besides avoiding indulging in overproducing on new products, environmental groups and agencies should take emissions trading or taxation into consideration to stimulate remanufacturing operations. Full article