Abstract: A fresh agri-product supply chain consisting of a third-party logistics provider, a supplier and a retailer is considered, in which the cold-chain service is able to mitigate quantity loss and quality loss of fresh agri-products. There are three modes on how the third-party logistics provider offers the cold-chain service, referring to the promise mode, the advanced-requirement mode and the postponed-requirement mode. Under the promise mode, the third-party logistics provider determines the service level, while under the requirement modes the retailer requires the service level offered by the third-party logistics provider; that is, the retailer decides the service level. To investigate the effect of the modes on decisions and performance, the market demand for fresh agri-products is modeled as a function of the service level and selling price, and then the supply chain member's profits are modeled. Under the promise mode, the third-party logistics provider decides the service level and the service price, and then the supplier chooses the wholesale price, after which the retailer prices the product. Under the advanced-requirement mode, the service level is determined by the retailer, prior to the third-party logistics provider deciding the service price. Then the supplier sets the wholesale price, following which the retailer decides the selling price. Under the postponed-requirement mode, firstly the third-party logistics provider offers the service price. Secondly, the supplier chooses the wholesale price and then the retailer determines the selling price and the service level simultaneously. Based on backward induction, the equilibrium outcomes are derived. It is found that the supply chain members cannot achieve an identical preference between the promise mode and the advanced-requirement mode. To be specific, the promise mode can benefit the third-party logistics provider more than the advanced-requirement mode, while for the retailer this is reversed. When the rate of the cold-chain service cost shared by the third-party logistics provider is low, the promise mode is more profitable to the supplier; otherwise, the advanced-requirement mode is beneficial. Through the numerical analysis, even though all supply chain members cannot achieve a common preference among the modes on how the third-party logistics provider offers the cold-chain service, some of them can prefer an identical mode. To be specific, the third-party logistics provider and the retailer prefer the postponed-requirement mode when the rate of the cold-chain service cost shared by the third-party logistics provider is low. However, when this rate is high, for highly perishable fresh agri-products the common preference between the third-party logistics provider and the retailer still holds; otherwise, the supplier and the retailer achieve a common preference of the advanced-requirement mode.

Key words: fresh agri-product, cold-chain service mode, pricing, supply chain management