Zhenyu Liu

In e-commerce, retailers often use return shipping insurance (RSI) to solve consumer returns, leading to a high return rate. To reduce this negative effect, we consider restricting rights to restrict consumers from obtaining RSI or buying products. We examine the effect of RSI on retail pricing strategies and profits under restricting rights. We formulate a game-theoretical model which consists of one insurer, a retailer and two types of consumers (informed consumers and uninformed consumers). By solving the model, we find that even though the insurer has restricted uninformed consumers from obtaining RSI, the retailer further restricts them from buying the product when the salvage value is low. Second, when the retailer and insurer have no right to restrict uninformed consumers, purchasing RSI may hurt the retailer. Third, when the insurer restricts uninformed consumers and the product salvage is low, the retailer adopts the high-price strategy; otherwise, the retailer adopts the low-price strategy. Finally, when the product salvage is low, the retailer will prevent uninformed consumers from buying the product by adopting the high-price strategy or using the restricting right. In this case, the insurer will set a higher premium.

Green agriculture can minimize the negative impact of agriculture on the environment, and green products are usually sold at a higher price due to their green attributes. This induces farmers to produce conventional products and falsely sell them as green products. To better promote the development of the green agricultural product market, we study the effect of retailers’ audit strategies, premium policies and farmers’ punishment policy on farmers’ decisions. We develop an evolutionary game theory model to describe evolutionary behaviors of farmers and retailers. Then, we analyze the evolutionary stability strategies in different scenarios and numerically simulate the evolution of farmers’ decisions and retailers’ decisions to verify theoretical results. The results show that the static premium policy is not an ideal policy to promote the development of green agriculture, whereas the dynamic premium policy, as well as the dynamic premium and farmers’ punishment policy, could lead to an effective green market. A higher maximum premium encourages more farmers to produce true green products and may allow more retailers not to audit farmers. Moreover, if the punishment for farmers increases, more retailers will not audit farmers, leading to lower audit cost. Finally, a lower audit fee could motivate more farmers to produce true green products.

This paper made the first attempt to summarize the rules from a regional perspective and use panel data to explore the carbon Kuznets curve (CKC) between e-commerce and carbon dioxide emissions. The impact of online shopping on carbon emission has mixed conclusions. No CKC tests set mainly focuses on the e-commerce sector, which can help this research determine the relationship between e-commerce and carbon emissions. From a macro point of view, we examine both developed and developing regions by testing the CKC hypothesis. We try to explain it by exploring the econometric relationship between e-commerce and CO₂ emissions. At first, we attempt to accurately measure the CO₂ emissions by carefully distinguishing the carbon emission increments caused by the primary energy resulting from the secondary energy. Then, we use panel data collected from different Chinese cities during 2001–2017. The analyzed variables are stationary at their first differences with the LLC test, IPS test, Fisher-ADF test, Fisher-PP test, CADF, and CIPS unit root tests. The analyzed variables are cointegrated by employing the Pedroni panel cointegration test, the Kao panel cointegration test, and the Westerlund panel cointegration test. Using the DOLS, we also find that increases in trade openness decrease carbon emissions while increases in foreign direct investment (FDI) and market size contribute to the level of emissions. The quadratic-shape CKC hypothesis is supported for China, Eastern China, and Western China, and it is an inverted “U” shape. The cubic-form CKC is supported for Central China, and it is an “N” shape. Our study provides important insights for enacting regional and country-level e-commerce regulations and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

This article has explored the concepts of coordination and inter-organizational coordination mechanisms. Based on a case of automobile procurement, the evolutional issue of coordination mechanisms in electronic commerce has been studied. We establish a framework, which describes how IT impacts on inter-organizational transactions coordination mechanisms according to system science. We conclude that inter-organizational coordination in EC environment includes not only the innovation of coordination mechanisms, but also the improvement of inter-organizational relationships. To explain the transactions coordination mechanisms, we integrate both economic and political organization management perspectives. But which theory is more feasible depends on the transactions' nature and inter-organizational relationship's environment, the latter includes trust factor. Our theory can further direct study on the impact of IT on inter-organizational relationships