Title: Carrier channel encroachment and forwarder order sequence: an equilibrium analysis of shipping service supply chain

Authors: Lang Xu; Yuqian Wei; Jihong Chen; Yuqi Luo

Addresses: College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China ' College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China ' College of Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China ' College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China

Abstract: In the post-epidemic era, with the economic deterioration of global situation and the efficiency recovery of shipping market, the maritime industry is falling into the recession. Affected by this situation, the competition of maritime supply chain not only comes from the horizontal among forwarders to order sequence, but also includes the vertical brought by the carrier encroachment in freight forwarding business. Under this setting, we introduce the independent forwarder and subsidiary forwarder into the maritime supply chain to explore the interaction between carrier channel encroachment and forwarder order timing. From the outcome, we observe that the channel encroachment is not always the best choice if the encroached cost is high relatively or the subsidiary forwarder order capacity simultaneously. Further, the cooperation degree between the carrier and subsidiary forwarder also plays a key role in the choice of encroachment strategy, where the channel encroachment is adopted once the carrier excessively relies on the subsidiary forwarder.

Keywords: channel encroachment; game theory; order sequence; shipping service supply chain.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2024.142370

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics, 2024 Vol.19 No.1, pp.82 - 97

Received: 18 Jul 2023
Accepted: 21 Nov 2023
Published online: 25 Oct 2024 *

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