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Impact of Traceability Technology Adoption in Food Supply Chain Networks

Author

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  • Lingxiu Dong

    (Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130)

  • Puping (Phil) Jiang

    (Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China)

  • Fasheng Xu

    (Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244)

Abstract

Improving traceability in food supply chains has been a big part of ongoing effort to reduce contamination risks and food waste. Recent technology advancement such as blockchain technology has propelled innovative retailers to promote food traceability system adoption in their supply chains. We develop a three-tier supply chain model with multiple upstream (tier 2) suppliers to investigate how traceability technology adoption affects incentives of supply chain members and whether and how its anticipated benefits can be realized. We find that full traceability brings direct revenue benefit to every supply chain member by saving uncontaminated food from disposal (pure traceability effect) but also leaves each tier of the supply chain vulnerable to its immediate downstream buyer’s exploitation through strategically lowering the purchasing price (strategic pricing effect). The interplay of the two effects may result in some of the supply chain members (even the retailer) being worse off with traceability adoption and the system being exposed to higher contamination risk; the latter is because of the weakened upstream supplier’s incentive to exert contamination risk-reduction effort. Moreover, we find that the supply chain network structure also influences the benefit distribution of traceability adoption: The retailer always benefits from traceability adoption in network structures where the tier 1 supplier’s strategic pricing power is eliminated or weakened; all supply chain members benefit from traceability adoption in a network with a large number of tier 2 suppliers. Finally, we show that alternative risk-mitigation schemes such as tier 2 coordination can diminish the value of traceability adoption, and partial traceability enabled by tier 1 product inspection can be more beneficial to the retailer than full traceability.

Suggested Citation

  • Lingxiu Dong & Puping (Phil) Jiang & Fasheng Xu, 2023. "Impact of Traceability Technology Adoption in Food Supply Chain Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1518-1535, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:69:y:2023:i:3:p:1518-1535
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2022.4440
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    References listed on IDEAS

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