Mitigating bankruptcy propagation through contractual incentive schemes

With the increasing interdependence among supply chain members on material, information and capital, interactions and decisions characterized by operational parameters are important causes of bankruptcy propagation in supply chain. This paper investigates the methods for mitigating bankruptcy propagation through supply chain coordination. Based on a two-stage supply chain network that consists of multiple upstream manufacturers and multiple downstream retailers, the effectiveness of some typical contractual incentive schemes, including revenue sharing, price discount and quantity flexibility contracts, in mitigating bankruptcy propagation among supply chain members is examined. Through agent-based simulation experiments, it has been revealed that: 1) the three typical supply chain contracts with properly designed contract parameters are effective in mitigating bankruptcy propagation, but their effectiveness depends on operational parameters of the supply chain; 2) horizontal competition among retailers is an important factor in determining the effectiveness of these contracts; 3) revenue sharing contract turns out to be more effective in mitigating bankruptcy propagation than the other two contracts. By comparing the optimal contract parameters with and without considering bankruptcy risks, it has also been found that, a set of contract parameters that can maximize the profit of the supply chain may increase the occurrence of bankruptcy in supply chain, leading to the phenomenon of a risk–profit tradeoff.

► The effectiveness of each contract depends on parameters of supply chain.
► Retail competition is an important factor in determining a contract's effectiveness.
► When retail competition is mild, revenue sharing and price discount are effective.
► If competition is intensive, quantity flexibility and revenue sharing are effective.
► There is a tradeoff between profit-maximizing and reducing the risk of bankruptcy.