Livestock and poultry manure utilization incorporating carbon Accounts: A perspective from small-world networks

The utilization of livestock and poultry manure form a crucial pathway for achieving pollution reduction and carbon mitigation goals. Small- and medium-scale livestock and poultry farms (SMS-LPFs), in collaboration with third-party companies (TPCs), have established regional supply chain relationships for manure utilization. However, incorporating carbon accounting to motivate proactive manure management among enterprises remains unexplored in the literature. Besides, while the strategic decisions of SMS-LPFs are influenced by the payoffs of their network neighbors, the role of small-world network structures in shaping manure utilization is still largely understudied. To fill research gaps, we, grounded in empirical cases, develop a tripartite evolutionary game model, involving SMS-LPFs, TPCs, and local governments (TLGs). The key findings are as follows: (1) The system's evolutionary stable state converges to (1,0,0), indicating that SMS-LPFs adopt the “proactive management” strategy, TPCs establish carbon accounts, and TLGs implement lenient regulation. (2) The presence of small-world network features extends the time needed for the system to reach equilibrium but does not change the direction of evolution. Meanwhile, policies that support carbon accounting help promote the utilization of manure within these networks. (3) Increasing the number of nodes accelerates the evolutionary paths. Further expanding neighbors speeds up the strategic evolution of SMS-LPFs, and higher interaction frequencies among enterprises foster “collective action” within the network. (4) Increasing the share of carbon account revenue allocated to SMS-LPFs significantly encourages proactive manure management, without reducing TPCs' profitability. In conclusion, this study offers key managerial and practical insights into market-oriented governance and manure utilization.