The Impact of Government Interventions and Consumer Green Preferences on the Competition between Green and Nongreen Supply Chains

Abstract

The green supply chain (GSC) has become a major trend that advocates for the sustainability of supply chains. To seek optimal strategies for the GSC, the competition between green and nongreen supply chains (NGSCs), along with the impacts of government subsidies and tax policies and the green preferences of consumers, are discussed in this study. A pricing-strategy model of an NGSC and a GSC was conducted by considering the cross-price effects. The equilibrium strategies (the optimal green-technology level, the pricing, and the profits) were achieved and were comparatively analyzed with backward induction. For more in-depth research, a robust sensitivity analysis was conducted, and the Taguchi method was used to identify the main factors that affect the revenues of NGSCs and GSCs. The results show that the vertical collaboration between manufacturers and retailers can help to improve the greenness of products and bring more benefits to consumers. The government interventions have an effect, and when the government sets a premeditated threshold for subsidies and taxation, GSC members can earn more, and the green products obtain more competitiveness. The green preferences of consumers are the primarily conducive factor to the sustainability and profit increases of GSCs. However, the green-technology-investment cost will not have a significant influence on the equilibrium strategies.