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This study aims to focus on the optimal green R&D of a capital-constrained supply chain under different channel power structures as well as the impact of capital constraint, financing cost, channel power structure and cost-reducing efficiency on green R&D and supply chain profitability.

A two-echelon supply chain is considered. The upstream firm engages in green R&D but has capital constraints that can be overcome by external financing. Green R&D is beneficial to reduce production costs and increase consumer demand. Based on whether or not the upstream firm is capital constrained and dominates the supply chain, four models are developed.

Capital constraints significantly lower green R&D and supply chain profitability. Transferring leadership from the upstream to the downstream firms leads to higher green R&D levels and downstream firm profitability, whereas the upstream firm's profitability is increased (decreased) if green R&D investment efficiency is high (low) enough. Greater financing costs reduce green R&D and downstream firm profitability; however, the upstream firm's profitability under the model in which it functions as the follower increases if the initial capital is sufficient. More importantly, empirical analysis based on practice data is used to verify the theoretical results reported above.

This study reveals how upstream firms in supply chains decide green R&D decisions in situations with capital constraints, providing managers and governments with an understanding of the impact of capital constraint, channel power structure, financing cost and cost-reducing efficiency on supply chain green R&D and profitability.

The major contributions are the exploration of supply chain green R&D by taking into consideration channel power structures and cost-reducing efficiency and the validation of theoretical results using practice data.

The purpose of this research is to investigate how to introduce a financing scheme to tackle the manufacturer's capital constraint problem, discuss the effects of data-driven marketing (DDM) quality, cross-channel-return (CCR) rate and financing interest rate on the members' pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions and optimal performances, and analyzes `how to achieve the coordination within a dual-channel supply chain (DSC) by contract coordination.

This work establishes a DSC model with DDM, and the offline retailer can provide internal financing to the capital-constrained online manufacturer. The demand under the price is determined based on DDM quality, customer channel preference and delivery lead time. Then, combined with the Stackelberg game, the optimal pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions are discussed under the inconsistent and consistent pricing strategies with decentralized and centralized systems. Furthermore, it designs a manufacturer-revenue sharing contract to coordinate the members under the two pricing strategies.

(1) The increase of DDM quality will reduce the delivery-lead-time under the inconsistent or consistent pricing strategy and will push the selling prices; (2) The growth of the CCR rate will raise selling prices and extend the delivery-lead-time under the decentralized decision; (3) Under price competition, the offline selling price is higher than the online selling price when customers prefer the offline channel and vice versa; (4) The retailer and the manufacturer can achieve a win-win situation through a manufacturer-revenue sharing contract.

This paper contributes to the studies related to DSC by investigating pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions based on DDM, CCR, internal financing and supply chain contract and proposes some managerial implications.

This paper investigates whether and how the financial services offered by an e-commerce platform can help budget-constrained small- and medium-sized suppliers improve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance.

The authors examine a supply chain in which a budget-constrained supplier engages in CSR, produces a finished product and sells it on the marketplace of an e-commerce platform. This platform offers financial services to the supplier, choosing among three types of financing models: target rate of return, credit limit and CSR-linked financing. Using a Stackelberg game approach, the authors can drive the equilibrium decisions under each financing model.

The results reveal that all three financing models help improve the supplier's CSR investment as long as consumer sensitivity toward CSR exists. Moreover, the last one leads to the highest profitability of the overall supply chain and each member.

The findings shed light on the role of platform financing and how to design the most appropriate financing model to improve CSR for supply chain managers.

This paper aims to systematically expound the theory and development background of supply chain finance and blockchain, design a railway freight supply chain financial platform based on blockchain, determine the risk management system and business support system of supply chain finance business and analyze the value generated by the combination of supply chain finance business and blockchain.

Investigation and research method; Prototype method; Model method; Value analysis.

The business model integrating supply chain finance and blockchain technology will bring great changes to freight industry. The development of supply chain finance is beneficial to the healthy development of the core participants of railway freight transport business and its upstream and downstream ecosystems. It links commerce, logistics, warehousing and financial services together and builds an industry-integrated ecological service platform through information technology platform and supporting system, taking data as the basis and combining information technology such as blockchain as innovative means.

This paper will provide important reference value for related research. This paper innovatively designs the supply chain financial platform of freight transportation industry-integrating blockchain technology and analyzes its business model, technical system, risk management and control system and value system in detail, which will provide technical support for the innovative reform of freight information technology and realize the stable and high-speed development of freight logistics informationization.

The present paper aims at understanding how horizontal network collaborations between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can be designed and implemented to take advantage of a supply chain finance (SCF) perspective.

This study presents an SCF literature background identifying four literature gaps, and in response to them it adopts an action research approach. The empirical analysis is developed on a network-case study: a horizontal collaboration project between small businesses of the Italian wine industry and their supply chains.

SMEs can play an active role in developing – in terms of design and implementation – their collaborative networks by taking advantage of an SCF perspective for themselves, and their customers, based on the reorganization of relationships interface processes. Taking this perspective can be a concrete and crucial way to sustain the development of SMEs and their supply chains in an actual competitive context.

The paper identifies the theoretical gaps in the literature, suggests new research areas that deserve to be more deeply investigated and connects case-related results to the key concepts. The empirical part presents a real case application that proposes a complete roadmap for managers and practitioners who wish to experience similar projects.

This network-case study storyline, presenting an overview of ten years of meetings, with related purposes, is suggesting a roadmap for design and implementation of horizontal network as managerial implications. These kinds of active research projects, with a collaborative mixed team of academics and practitioners, and involving a multilayer group of participants, are positive examples for closing the bridge between companies and academia, which enhance this network of small businesses active in trying to improve their competitiveness working together.

The value of the paper is to embrace a supply chain-oriented perspective for an SME, independent of the financial system and based on inventory flow management. Very little literature focuses on inventory-based research within the SCF framework, designed for real implementation in horizontal network collaboration by entrepreneurial ventures.

This paper aims to explore avenue where suppliers and manufacturers are aligned with health-care providers to improve supply chain visibility. Supply chain finance is explored to link suppliers/manufacturers with health-care providers.

Existing literature on supply chain visibility in health care forms a basis to achieve the study purpose. Alignment calls also for financial health where supply chain partners’ working capital is readily available to execute joint supply chain plan.

There is a disjoint in supply chain alliance between suppliers/manufacturers and providers where providers are unable to trace the origin of supplies. Quality care suffers and cost of care rises as providers search for supplies on an emergency basis. This paper provides a framework where solution can be formulated.

Suppliers/manufactures form a direct strategic alliance with providers where product visibility enables health-care providers with a better patient management with lower cost of supplies. Inventory management and logistics cost will be lowered as better planning/forecasting is in place. This paper does not call for testing any hypothesis. Perhaps, next move along this line will be to investigate financial health of supply chain partners based on supplier relationship management practices.

This paper proposes health-care supply chain as an alternative solution to achieve the following twin purposes: controlling the cost while improving quality of care through supply chain finance. As far as we know, this study is the first attempt to achieve the goals.

Complaint service management, aimed at improving customer satisfaction, provides important content for incorporation into studying a closed-loop supply chain. An analysis of the relationship between two provides the basis for probing the role of complaint management (CM) in the closed-loop supply chain to help it perform more efficiently and effectively through the application of advanced technologies. This paper considers how CM can be computed combining computer communication and information technologies. This computing process involves collection, evaluation and disposal. Using computer telephone integration technology, an integrated multi-channel system is designed; complaint and production evaluated through an intelligent decision support system; and CM processing system established to implement corresponding disposal which reflects the utility of CM. This research on the process of incorporating CM into our studies has significance for computing business service in the future. Based on exergoeconomics theory, the closed-loop supply chain is discussed, and the metric about “system negative environment effect” is introduced to system performance in terms of energy expenditures; a case study illustrates the efficacy of the process

Previous approaches have employed the SCOR model for evaluating supply chain management, and in particular, have focused on cash-to-cash cycle time (C2C). This paper reviews the Supply Chain Index (SCI) developed by Supply Chain Insight LLC, which evaluates supply chain performance based on balance, strength, and resiliency. The main aim of this study is to review SCI as a new methodology to measure performance management, as well as to apply C2C for a case study of Korean firms, to compare and present differences for further complementary application.

The review examines the existing literature on blockchain-based small and medium enterprise (SME) finance and highlights its trend, themes, opportunities and challenges. Based on these factors, the authors create a framework for the existing literature on blockchain-based SME financing and lay down future research paths.

The review follows a systematic approach. It includes 53 articles encompassing multiple dimensions of blockchain-based SME finance, including peer-to-peer lending platforms, supply chain finance (SCF), decentralized lending protocols and tokenization of assets. The review critically evaluates these approaches' theoretical underpinnings, empirical evidence and practical implementations.

The review demonstrates that blockchain-based SME finance holds significant promise in addressing the credit gap by leveraging blockchain technology's decentralized and transparent nature. Benefits identified include reduced information asymmetry, improved access to financing, enhanced credit assessment processes and increased financial inclusion. However, the literature acknowledges several challenges and limitations, such as regulatory uncertainties, scalability issues, operational complexities and potential security risks.

The article contributes to the growing knowledge of blockchain-based SME finance by synthesizing and evaluating the existing literature. It also provides a framework for the existing literature in the area and future research paths. The study offers insights for researchers, policymakers and practitioners seeking to understand the potential of blockchain technology in filling the SME credit gap and fostering economic development through improved access to finance for SMEs.

This paper aims to contribute to the debate about the value of blockchain for supply chain management by assessing empirical evidence on the relationship between blockchain and supply chain performance.

The authors conducted a structured review of the academic literature to identify and assess papers providing empirical insight on operational blockchain applications. The authors complement the findings from this review with primary empirical data from 11 interviews with blockchain providers, users and experts involved in four recent projects.

The paper presents an integrated research framework that illustrates the impact of blockchain on supply chain performance. The findings highlight that blockchain can affect supply chain performance directly – via one of its core technological features – and indirectly via the broader business project through which blockchain technology is implemented.

Insights from this paper should provide managers with a more nuanced understanding of how blockchain technology can be leveraged to address important supply chain management challenges.

Prior research addressing the relationship between blockchain and supply chain performance mostly discusses potential performance effects of blockchain, presents individual blockchain applications and/or provides little explanation for how the core technological features of blockchain affect supply chain performance. This paper systematically assesses the ways in which blockchain can affect supply chain performance. In doing so, it goes beyond the initial hype around blockchain technology while countering some of the more recent critiques.