Expansion Into Logistics: Manufacturer’s Supply Chain Integration Strategy
研究了制造商是否应开放物流系统与零售商共享资源，发现即使有额外成本，共享策略有时也有利，但零售商可能不接受，且共享可能提高社会福利却降低消费者剩余。
Recently, leading manufacturers have come to realize the strategic advantages of supply chain integration and begin establishing their logistics systems to improve supply chain efficiency through supply chain integration strategies. While competing with retailers in the consumer market, manufacturers can adopt either the traditional “coopetitive” strategy by cooperating with retailers in wholesale, or the new “coopetitive” strategy by opening logistics systems and sharing logistics resources with retailers. However, relevant research on this topic remains scarce. Hence, our research aims to fill this gap by analyzing the manufacturer's supply chain integration strategy. First, we find that even if the logistics sharing strategy incurs additional service configuration costs, interestingly, it is sometimes beneficial for the manufacturer to adopt the logistics sharing strategy. Next, we find that even if the manufacturer's logistics sharing strategy could improve the retailer's logistics service, the retailer sometimes may not accept the manufacturer's logistics service. Moreover, our results show that the manufacturer could invest more in logistics when the retailer accepts the manufacturer's logistics service. Further, we find that although the adoption of logistics sharing strategy improves social welfare, it may reduce customer surplus. We also extend our model to a setting where the order processing costs of the manufacturer and retailer are asymmetric. Through analysis of this extended model, we address our key questions and illustrate that our main findings are robust to this setting. Overall, our findings offer guidance for the manufacturer and retailer's decisions on service operations and policymakers' welfare policies. This paper also contributes to the following United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): SDG 12. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Managerial Relevance Statement</i>—This study offers actionable insights for engineering managers and policymakers focusing on supply chain integration. For engineering managers, our findings provide a decision-making framework for evaluating logistics sharing strategy. Specifically, we demonstrate that opening logistics systems and sharing logistics resources with retailers could be beneficial despite additional configuration costs, though managers should assess the logistics service levels of third-party logistics providers (TPLPs) critically, as benefits may not materialize when these are relatively high or low. Engineering managers should also anticipate scenarios where retailers decline logistics service offers and strategically increase logistics investment when partnerships are accepted. For policymakers, our results highlight a nuanced welfare trade-off: while the adoption of logistics sharing strategy could enhance social welfare, it may concurrently reduce consumer surplus. This dynamic calls for carefully designed policies that not only prevent excessive logistics expansion by enterprises but also incentivize them to provide more value to consumers—whether through improved service or compensation mechanisms. By leveraging these insights, both engineering managers and policymakers could make more informed decisions to improve operational and regulatory outcomes.