Analysis of retailers’ coalition stability for supply chain based on LCS and stable set
研究由一个供应商和多个零售商组成的两阶段供应链中零售商联盟的稳定性，通过利润增益函数和稳定集方法得出稳定联盟结构的一般特征，为汽车或IT供应链中的零售商联盟提供参考。
To attain the general form of stable coalition structure, this paper addressed the problem of retailers’ coalition stability in a two-stage supply chain consisting of one supplier and multiple retailers. A profit gain function was established via introducing market gain coefficient and coalition cost coefficient for different coalition structures. Based on the function, the profit of each retailer in all kinds of coalition structures was analysed, and the general feature of a stable coalition structure was attained by the largest consistent set method and the stable set method. Furthermore, some insights were obtained. For example, stable coalition structures are equidistributed or approximate equidistributed; with supplier’s cost increasing, the size of the retailers’ coalition increases. Finally, the above conclusions are verified by numerical simulation. The results of this paper provide a reference for retailers’ coalition in a supply chain, such as automobile or Information Technology supply chain.