Pricing and coordination in a green supply chain with a risk-averse manufacturer under the reference price effect

Abstract

This paper considers a green supply chain using manufacturers and retailers as the research objects. The pricing and coordination strategy of the green supply chain, considering a risk-averse manufacturer, is investigated under the reference price effect. We establish centralized, decentralized, and cost-sharing contract decision-making models and then provide the optimal balancing strategy for each model. Further, we analyzed the optimal equilibrium strategy of different models. In the end, validate them through numerical simulation. We have found that the cost-sharing contract model is better than the decentralized decision model. Besides, manufacturers’ degree of risk avoidance affects the wholesale price, product greenness, retail prices, and profits of supply chain members. It is verified that the cost-sharing contract can coordinate the supply chain system to increase the profit of members of the supply chain.