Optimal pricing and financing decision of dual-channel green supply chain considering product differentiation and blockchain

This paper constructs a dual-channel green supply chain model that includes a well-capitalized retailer and e-commerce platform, as well as a capital-constrained manufacturer. The manufacturer sells two different green quality products through the e-commerce platform and the retailer. There are two portfolio financing strategies for the manufacturer to choose and decide whether to use blockchain. We establish four models of whether to use blockchain under the EP financing strategy (e-commerce platform financing and prepayment financing) and the EB financing strategy (e-commerce platform financing and bank financing). By comparing the optimal solutions under four models, we discover some results. Firstly, we discover that the wholesale price will be higher than the selling price of the online channel when the product greenness difference between the two channels is large, and the optimal expected profit of the retailer is not related to product green differences. Secondly, the EP financing strategy is the optimal financing strategy choice for the manufacturer regardless of whether blockchain is used or not. Thirdly, when the cost per unit of using blockchain is greater than a certain threshold, the manufacturer should choose not to use blockchain. Finally, the manufacturer's acceptable blockchain usage threshold under the EP financing strategy is higher than under the EB financing strategy, and it decreases with the smaller product greenness difference between the two channels under the EP financing strategy. In addition, we also make an extension that verifies our model and findings are robust.