Abstract:

In recent years， many companies have become more socially responsible than ever. One supply chain is considered in which the retailer exhibits social responsibility and requires the supplier to make effort to improve the level of environmental sustainability， and the retailer’s demand information sharing is studied. The benchmark model is first considered where both government subsidy and cost sharing do not exist under information sharing and no sharing respectively， and then the impacts of government subsidy and cost sharing on the retailer’s information sharing are analyzed. The impacts of government subsidy and cost sharing on environmental sustainability level， consumer and social welfare are further explored. It is shown that information sharing generates four effects for the retailer， namely， the sustainability improvement effect， the cost increasing effect， the double marginalization effect of information sharing and the responsibility variation effect. The retailer always benefits from the sustainability improvement effect， and may benefit from the responsibility variation effect， but is always hurt by the double marginalization effect of information sharing and the cost increasing effect. Whether information sharing is beneficial to the retailer depends on these four effects. The retailer voluntarily shares demand information with the supplier when the proportion of environmental sustainability cost shared by the retailer is small and the efficiency of the supplier to improve environmental sustainability level is not low， or when both of them are moderate. Meanwhile， information sharing always benefits the supplier. It is found that the retailer is more willing to share information when increasing government subsidy and decreasing the environmental sustainability cost shared by the retailer. It provides insights for companies to improve environmental sustainability level and share demand information.

Key words: government subsidy, cost sharing, social responsibility, information sharing