Firms’ strategy analysis under different retailing formats considering emission reduction efficiency and low-carbon preference

In response to the cap-and-trade policy, many manufacturers begin to reduce emissions by various measures, such as investing in technologies and using clean materials, which will affect their operation strategies and further affect the whole supply chain. Based on this, we explore how the cap-and-trade policy affects firms’ operation decisions under different retailing formats. We study a supply chain with an e-commerce platform and one manufacturer, in which they can cooperate via reseller or marketplace formats. Meanwhile, we employ a new cost function of emission reduction by incorporating the manufacturer’s emission reduction efficiency (ERE). We find that in the absence of low-carbon preference, the manufacturer’s and the platform’s profits both increase as the manufacturer’s ERE improves in reseller format; but in marketplace format, the platform is worse off as the manufacturer’s ERE improves if the efficiency is larger than a threshold. Besides, under which format the platform or the manufacturer is better off is related to the product category. For some product categories, low-carbon preference could alter the retailing format under which the platform or the manufacturer gains a higher profit. Moreover, the platform and the manufacturer are both better off in the presence of low-carbon preference, regardless of retailing formats.