Facilitation Mechanisms for Supply Chain Resilience-Oriented Inputs: A Perspective of Digitalization and Enterprise Alliance

Abstract

The importance of supply chain resilience (SCR) has been highlighted by the frequency of disruptions to supply chains in recent years. The imbalance in the cost-benefit of SCR-oriented inputs makes firms less motivated. Put simply, digitalization is not a simple boost to SCR. These factors enhance the complexity of improving SCR within the digital context, yet existing research has paid scant attention to this issue. Based on this new reality, this study comprehensively considers the positive and negative impacts of digitalization. The evolutionary game models are constructed under the market mechanism and enterprise alliance mechanism, and the input decision-making of enterprises for SCR is examined. In addition, this study analyzes the impact of the enterprise alliance mechanism in scenarios in which the market mechanism has failed. Many important findings are obtained in this study. First, there are two thresholds for the level of digitalization, and firms will only provide SCR-oriented inputs when the level of digitalization is between the two thresholds. Second, the market mechanism encounters failure when the proportion of SCR-oriented inputs to returns surpasses a critical threshold. This situation prompts firms to shift their behavior away from investing in resilience. Third, there is a subsidies and penalties threshold for enterprise alliances, which can only work if the subsidies and penalties are above the threshold. However, when applied excessively, these measures have certain limitations. A medium level of subsidies and penalties can better promote SCR-oriented inputs by firms. This study clarifies the conditions under which digitalization and enterprise alliance mechanisms act on SCR.

Keywords: Digitalization；Supply chain resilience；Resilience-oriented inputs, Enterprise alliance, Facilitation mechanisms