Investment Decisions of Blockchain-Based Anti-Counterfeiting Traceability Services in a High-Quality Fresh Supply Chain of China

Abstract

The application of a blockchain-based anti-counterfeiting traceability system (hereafter, blockchain-based ACTS) presents a positive effect on improving the unreliability of the freshness information. However, using a blockchain-based ACTS requires additional expenditures from chain members. Chain members want to know the investment conditions of a blockchain-based ACTS and how to coordinate their supply chain. To solve these problems, a supply chain with one fresh producer and one retailer was chosen as the study subject. Afterwards, considering the unreliability of the freshness information, the demand function was revised. Then, the profit functions before and after adopting a blockchain-based ACTS were constructed, and then a price discount and revenue-sharing contract was put forward to coordinate the supply chain. Findings: With the growth of the unreliability coefficient of the freshness information, benefits to chain members in the proposed three situations would be reduced. Thus, we can know that after using a blockchain-based ACTS, if chain members want to gain more benefits, they should try their best to excavate the value of the blockchain-based ACTS and reduce the unreliability coefficient of the freshness information.