Pricing Strategy in an Interval-Valued Production Inventory Model for High-Tech Products under Demand Disruption and Price Revision

Due to continuous development in technology, new and updated products are launching in the market more frequently in the area of some high-tech products such as smartphones, laptops, etc. It is noticed that after a certain period of releasing a new product by a particular company some other company develops a similar type of product at a lesser selling price. Customers generally become attracted to buy that updated product causing a sudden disruption in the demand for the first product. The demand for a normal product may also suddenly vanish as we have experienced during the COVID-19 lock down period. The manufacturer is then compelled to reduce the selling price to sell the remaining products. This paper aims at developing a single period production inventory model addressing this particular market condition. This paper also considers carbon emissions from different inventory processes and examines the optimal inventory policies under the cap and trade regulatory policy. Again, in a real-life production system, the various inventory cost components and the carbon emission rates from different inventory processes are not fixed always. To incorporate this issue, the proposed model considers these quantities as interval numbers. The resulting optimization problem is thus also interval-valued and has been solved by using the quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization technique. A numerical illustration is provided to validate the proposed model. Finally, a sensitivity analysis with respect to key inventory parameters is performed to derive some key managerial implications. It is found that the frequency of launching new products is inversely proportional to the optimum profit of the manufacturer. Also, a higher carbon tax rate is found to be beneficial from an environmental point of view.

Channel selection for retailers in platform economy under cap-and-trade policy considering different power structures

With the outbreak of COVID-19 and some environmental problems in recent years, consumers prefer to shop online and purchase green products. Considering the benefit of the e-commerce platform, offline retailers face the challenge of whether to enter e-commerce platforms. Moreover, different power structures may affect retailer encroachment in the platform economy. Thus, we develop theoretical models considering retailer channel selections, different power structures between a retailer and a manufacturer, and cap-and-trade policy. The main results show that the optimal channel selection of the retailer is affected by the annual service fee, the power structure and the carbon trading price. An interesting result is that the retailer entering the platform has a good chance to reduce the total carbon emissions. In the extensions, we consider online reviews, consumers’ channel preferences, the carbon emission of the logistics, and the shipping cost, and find that the robustness of the main results still holds.

Impacts of green and preservation technology investments on a sustainable EPQ model during COVID-19 pandemic

Carbon and Sulfur dioxides emissions are the key issues of global warming that affects on human health. Emissions cap- and -trade policy is a key mechanism implemented in several countries to reduce the emissions. Nowadays, public gathering is restricted due to the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19. As a result, people are facing huge problems in their regular activities and lifestyle. During the lockdown periods, demands for few merchandises decrease and the deterioration rate increases. Moreover, because of the unavailability of raw materials and labours during the lockdown, shortages occur at the manufacturing company. Keeping these problems in mind, a multi-objective sustainable economic production quantity model is proposed with partially back-ordering shortages, in which the effects of sustainability are investigated. To handle the demand fluctuation throughout the current pandemic, emergency level dependent demand rate is assumed. To reduce greenhouse gases emissions and deterioration rate, investments in green technology and preservation technology efforts are used. The objectives of this study are to maximize the manufacturera s profit and minimize the greenhouse gases emissions for producing green products. The multi-objective model is solved by utilizing the fuzzy goal programming approach. The mathematical model is illustrated by four numerical examples. The main finding of the work is that under both green and preservation technologies investments, a sustainable model with partially back-ordering shortages and lockdown level dependent demand rate decreases justifiable greenhouse gases emissions and increases the producta s greening level. The results indicate that the system profit is increased by 16.1% by investing in both preservation and green technology. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is performed along with some managerial insights for practitioners. Finally, the paper is ended with conclusions and future research tips. ©

Environmental Policy in Good and Bad Times: The Countercyclical Effects of Carbon Taxes and Cap-and-Trade

'Green recovery' is one of the key themes of the stimulus packages implemented around the world in response to the Covid-19-related economic downturn. Recent research points to the potential role of regulation that becomes less stringent during recessions (ie countercyclical regulation) as an instrument to stimulate a quicker recovery. When this argument is put in the context of a green recovery, two key questions arise: should we implement countercyclical environmental regulation? If yes, what environmental instruments are better suited to stimulate the economy in periods of economic downturn? This article addresses these questions by discussing the risks of countercyclical environmental regulation and comparing the countercyclical effects of two critical environmental instruments: carbon taxes and cap-and-trade. The article argues that policymakers should be cautious in implementing countercyclical environmental regulation because the benefits of this practice are uncertain and it entails various risks. The article also challenges the belief common among academics and policymakers that cap-and-trade is inherently more countercyclical than carbon taxes by showing that whether this is true depends on the design of these instruments and other contingent factors.

Responsible Carbon Resource Management through Input-Oriented Cap and Trade (IOCT)

Fossil fuels store primary carbon. When they are combusted, CO2 is released into the atmosphere. The accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere causes the anthropogenic greenhouse gas effect, which has led to the existing climate crisis. Academic literature, international climate deliberations and most domestic climate mitigation plans have so far focused primarily on reducing emissions (output orientation) and have paid little attention to supply-side climate policies. Thus, this study shows that output-oriented literature is heavily overweighted with over 7000 publications compared to input-oriented literature with just 107 publications (equivalent to 1.5% percent). The overall scope of this review article was therefore to identify the gaps of output-oriented mechanisms such as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), and to point out how an Input-Oriented Cap and Trade (IOCT) system might overcome those gaps. IOCT refers to limits to the carbon input into the global fossil fuel trading system instead of limiting only the emissions caused by already burned fuel. For this purpose, a global cap on the extraction of coal, gas and oil must firstly be defined. Accordingly, IOCT provides for the allocation of allowances for the extraction, processing and trading of carbon-based products. IOCT is a source-oriented approach that refers to a joint allocation of the resource consumption responsibility to the fossil fuel producer and consumer as well. This review represents a unique, comprehensive and current collection of supply-side literature that can be used as a starting point for further applied research on this topic.