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The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of carbon reduction efforts and preservation efforts on system benefits in the cold chain industry of fresh products.

This study develops an optimal decision game model for the fresh products in the cold chain, incorporating the retailer's preservation effort and the supplier's carbon emission reduction effort. It quantifies the relationship between carbon emission reduction effort, preservation effort and system profit. The model considers parameters like carbon trading price, consumer low-carbon preference and consumer freshness preference, reflecting real-world conditions and market trends. Numerical simulations are conducted by varying these parameters to observe their impact on system profit.

Under the carbon cap-and-trade policy, the profit of the fresh cold chain system is higher than that of the fresh cold chain system without carbon constraints, and the profit of the supplier under decentralized decision-making is increased by nine times in the simulation results. The increase in carbon trading prices can effectively improve the freshness level of fresh products cold chain, carbon emission reduction level and system profit.

This study comprehensively considers the factors of freshness and carbon emission reduction, provides the optimal low-carbon production decision-making reference for the fresh food cold chain and promotes the sustainable development of the fresh food cold chain.

This paper analyzes the advance selling and pricing strategies of fresh products supply chain where the e-retailer provides wholesale contract or agency contract to the fresh products supplier.

This paper constructed a two-period sequential-move game of fresh products supply chain members.

This analysis showed that the supply chain members had different preferences for contracts under different market conditions. The advance selling of fresh products was not a decision of the seller, but also required the support of other supply chain members. And the advance selling strategy was not always beneficial to all supply chain parties. Under the two contracts, there were market conditions in which the profits of supply chain members were Pareto-improved through the implementation of advance selling.

The model presented in this study focuses solely on the context of monopoly, overlooking the competition from alternative suppliers or retailers. Consequently, exploring the competitive landscape within the fresh products supply chain, particularly in relation to pre-sale pricing, emerges as a crucial avenue for further investigation. By employing empirical research methods, valuable insights are gleaned, thereby significantly augmenting the existing body of relevant theories.

The decision to pre-sell fresh products should be based on market conditions. Supply chain members can control production costs and fresh products circulation losses to maximize profits.

From the perspective of game theory, this study analyzed the optimal advance selling and pricing strategies of fresh products supply chain members under two kinds of contracts. These results can provide practical implications for fresh products suppliers and e-retailers.

“Originally as a business providing community life services since its founding in 2017, Dingdong (Cayman) has transformed itself into a fresh e-commerce company. After making adjustments to its business model and operating strategy for three times, Dingdong (Cayman) has completed the strategic transition from grocery surrogate shopping to comprehensive self-operation, and built its own commercial fortress. In 2019, the total revenue of the company was five billion yuan. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, its monthly revenue exceeded 1.2 billion yuan in February 2020, and the year's total revenue was expected to hit 15∼18 billion yuan. To date, Dingdong (Cayman) has formed a supply chain fully based on digital operation and built a commercial fortress in the fresh e-commerce industry. Despite this, its future prospect is not free from challenge. This case mainly deals with the following questions: How about the strategic positioning and core competitiveness of Dingdong (Cayman) in its early days? In the process of rapid expansion, what are the advantages and problems in its business model? How can the digitally operated supply chain support its continuous expansion in the future?”

This study investigates how food safety trust works as a critical moderator in the Chinese online fresh agricultural market based on an extended technology acceptance model.

The authors propose a research model that integrates attributes from the technology acceptance model, perceived product quality, logistics service quality, risk, and food safety trust. Structural equation modeling was applied to estimate the causal relationships using data from 851 Chinese customers.

The results indicated that perceived usefulness, product quality, and logistics service quality significantly enhance Chinese customers' intention to shop online for fresh agricultural products. Further, the positive effects increase when customer trust in food safety changes from low to high. In contrast, perceived risk reduces Chinese customers' willingness to engage in online shopping, but the negative influence is weaker for customers with high trust in food safety than for those with low trust. However, perceived ease of use plays an insignificant role in predicting online purchase intention and the impact does not vary depending on food safety trust.

This study suggests managers should consider the important moderating role of food safety trust to make effective strategies for fresh agricultural e-commerce development in China.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to impact economic systems, with devastating consequences on livelihoods. Anecdotal evidence has predicted the adverse effects of COVID-19 on the livelihood of food system actors. Uganda experienced two lockdowns in March 2020 and June 2021 with varying government containment measures. During the first lockdown, fresh food market vending was deemed essential to meet urban food demand, and was consequently exempted from a total shutdown despite the ban on public and private transport. Thus, this study sought to examine the effect of COVID-19 containment measures on fresh food market vending businesses in Uganda.

Using primary data collected from fresh food market vendors, this study applied a pooled time-series estimation to examine the effect of the first lockdown COVID-19 containment measures on fresh food vendors' welfare.

The study revealed that COVID-19 had a significant negative impact on the income of fresh food vendors, with female vendors being the most affected. COVID-19 containment measures reduced the diversity of buyers, individual customers and the number of commodities traded in causing a greater impact on vendors' income.

The unavailability of data for vendors who did not return to the market at the time of data collection limits the scope of the study. Additionally, the absence of data for the second lockdown limited the analysis to only March 2020 lockdown period.

The empirical analysis highlights how vulnerabilities of different gender categories could be exacerbated by crises. The study provides empirical evidence of various market distortions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the disproportionate impact on women and men market vendors which calls for the need to integrate women's perspectives in future planning for market systems as well as advocating for gender-sensitive recovery responses.

The post-pandemic crisis has reshaped work dynamics across industries, leading to a widespread reliance on technology for remote work and business continuity. Operations have shifted to the digital space, altering job requirements and creating new career opportunities. The expansion of the digital industry has generated numerous career choices. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between self-efficacy, social media, career outcome expectations and career choices among fresh graduates in Malaysia amid the pandemic crisis.

Research data were collected from a sample of 318 fresh graduates from both public and private universities in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data in this study.

The empirical findings revealed significant correlations between self-efficacy, social media usage and career outcome expectations and the career choices of Malaysian fresh graduates.

The present study offers an empirical framework to explain career choices among fresh graduates in Malaysia during the pandemic crisis, based on a review of related literature on careers. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on career choices among Generation Z fresh graduates and provides practical implications for organizations and individual employees. It suggests developing relevant Human Resource Development (HRD) interventions to retain the young workforce within organizations.

This study enriches the existing literature on self-efficacy, social media and career outcome expectations in the context of a pandemic crisis. It offers a new interpretation of how individual and contextual factors impact career choices, shaping the career management attitudes of fresh graduates in the post-pandemic era. The empirical findings also give valuable insights into higher education institutions, organizations and government authorities in Malaysia to develop relevant interventions to assist undergraduate students in their career choice exploration.

The fresh food supply chain industry faces significant challenges in risk management because of the complexity, immature development and unpredictable external environment of imported fresh food supply chains (IFFSCs). This study aims to identify specific risk factors in IFFSCs, demonstrate how these risks are transmitted within the system and provide an analytical framework for managing these risks.

A total of 15 risk factors for IFFSCs through extensive literature review and expert consultation are identified and classified into seven levels using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to demonstrate the risk transmission path. Fuzzy Matrice d’Impacts Croises-Multiplication Appliance Classement (MICMAC) analysis is then used to analyze the role of each factor.

The interactions of the 15 identified risk factors of IFFSCs, classified into seven levels, are visualized using ISM. The fuzzy MICMAC analysis classifies the factors into four groups, namely, dependent, independent, linkage and autonomous factors, and identifies the relatively critical risk factors in the system.

The findings of this research provide a clear framework for enterprises operating in IFFSCs to understand the specific risks they may face and how these risks interact within the system. The fuzzy MICMAC analysis also classifies and highlights critical risk factors in the system to facilitate the formulation of appropriate mitigation measures.

This study provides enterprises in IFFSCs with a comprehensive understanding of how the risks can be effectively managed and a basis for further exploration. The theoretical model constructed is also a new effort to address the issues of risk in IFFSCs. The ISM and the fuzzy MICMAC analysis offer clear insights for researchers and enterprises to grasp complex concepts.

The existence of the advertising delay effect and its impact on supply chain operations have been demonstrated in the current study. Therefore, this study develops a timely inventory control strategy for the fresh produce supply chain to address the advertising delay effect in the fresh produce supply chain.

This study proposes a game model based on the Nerlove-Arrow time delay differential equation and Pontryagin's maximum principle. Through comparative analyses of the optimal equilibrium strategies, the authors compare the optimal equilibrium strategies, product goodwill and optimal inventory trajectories for suppliers and retailers under secondary replenishment decisions and decentralized decisions.

The authors find that (1) Only when the sales cycle meets certain conditions can the overall profit of the supply chain under the secondary replenishment decision be greater than that under the decentralized decision. As the price markup coefficient increases, the total profit of the supply chain first increases and then decreases. (2) With the increase in the delay time, the replenishment quantity during the initial period gradually decreases. After the delay time elapses, the inventory depletion rate under secondary replenishment decisions is faster than that under decentralized decision-making. (3) Although there is a continuously increasing maximum value of product goodwill with the increase in delay time, it becomes difficult to achieve this value for longer delays.

The authors’ findings provide a theoretical basis for supply chain members of fresh agricultural products to select replenishment and inventory control strategies when adopting different levels of delay in advertising marketing.

Firstly, this paper explains the impact of advertising delay effect on fresh produce supply chain from a dynamic perspective, and secondly, it provides guidance on advertising formulation and inventory replenishment for fresh produce retailers under the influence of advertising delay effect.

After completion of the case study, students are expected to demonstrate understanding of the process of strategy formulation (which include conducting situational analysis) and strategy implementation.

Perusahaan Azan, which trades under the brand name Roti Azan for its fresh bread and Azan for its dry bread or rusks, was established as a family business in 1968 by Haji Abu Bakar bin Ali in his hometown in Kuala Pilah, in the state of Negeri Sembilan in Malaysia. In the mid-1980s, the management of the business was passed on by Haji Abu Bakar to one of his sons, Haji Mohd Ghazali bin Haji Abu Bakar. Haji Ghazali was named managing director in 1985 and officially inherited his father’s company in 1987. By 2004, Perusahaan Azan breads had started to penetrate major grocery stores nationwide, and later the business began to expand internationally in 2010, with Oman and Iraq among the first countries it ventured into. The company sold both its fresh and dry bread in local stores; however, in the international market, only dry bread types were sold, specifically wholemeal rusks and long rusks, which had longer shelf lives. Post-pandemic, by 2022, the company had exited the retail fresh bread market and had focused only on its contractual fresh bread and retail dry bread markets. He thought about the main strategic choices he had of going forward, either to revive its retail fresh bread segment or venture into a coffee shop business. The former was the bread and butter of the company in the last 50 years. However, he knew that re-entering this market was getting more difficult, as it requires competing head-to-head with the giant breadmakers. There were also issues of rising costs and high wastage. For the latter coffee shop project, the company did not have experience in directly “serving” the customers, with its businesses so far had been mainly in production. He pondered on the best decision to undertake to sustain the company’s profitability into the next generation. Few family businesses can pass this crucial stage. He knew he had to act fast to ensure that the company’s plans for the future could be successfully implemented. The case study is suitable for use in teaching courses in strategic management, organisational management and integrated case study for advanced undergraduates and postgraduates in the programmes of business administration, Muamalat administration and accounting.

The case study is suitable for use in advanced undergraduate students in management, business administration, Muamalat administration and postgraduate students in MBA, Master in Muamalat Administration or other related master’s programmes with a course in strategic management, organisational management and integrated case study.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Using the context of a farm holiday venue, the purpose of this study is to empirically test whether textual references can have significant influences on potential consumers' affective responses and interest in advertisements.

In a between-subjects experiment, a reference to sunshine (the underlined phrase in the following narrative) was inserted into a Facebook advertisement for a farm holiday venue: “Relax and Rejuvenate for a couple of days on our farm. Great food, fun, and sunshine … See More”.

Results indicate that a reference to sunshine significantly improves consumers' affective responses to the advertisement and significantly increases their interest (propensity to click “see more”). This study also examines the potential influence of a textual reference to fresh air as well as fresh air in combination with sunshine. No statistically significant results are found with the fresh air reference.

While a number of studies have examined text-based sensory details in marketing stimuli (Magnini and Gaskins, 2010; Torto, 2016), the notion of inserting textual references to fresh air and/or sunshine in advertising has not been empirically examined in the body of the existing literature.