Pub Date : 2025-12-29DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2025.3649028
Xihui Wang;Yong Zhang
As corporate social responsibility (CSR) gains prominence, firms confront a strategic choice between symbolic CSR, which offers superficial signals and entails greenwashing risk, and substantive CSR, which eliminates this risk through genuine and impactful practices at a higher cost. Prior research primarily examined whether firms engage in CSR, with limited exploration on the choice between symbolic and substantive CSR once engagement is decided. This article develops a game-theoretic model to examine firms’ incentives for substantive CSR, and how these varies with market structures and relevant exogenous parameters, including price premium, greenwashing risk, and consumer boycotts. We find that firms implement substantive CSR only when the incremental marginal cost is sufficiently low, and this condition becomes more stringent under competition. Although competition discourages the adoption of substantive CSR, it increases consumer surplus and social welfare when substantive CSR is implemented. Counterintuitively, this article demonstrates that price premium and consumer boycotts do not always promote substantive CSR under competition due to strategic price interactions. Furthermore, we derive the equilibrium CSR strategy structure and identify a dynamic set of the equilibrium structures that always includes the symmetric structures. Interestingly, a prisoner’s dilemma, in which both firms implement Pareto-insufficient symbolic CSR, may arise when the set consists solely of the symmetric structures. Finally, we show that these results remain robust under model extensions and demonstrate that the presence of consumers who refuse to pay a price premium may surprisingly increase firms’ prices and profits.
{"title":"Symbolic or Substantive: An Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility Strategies","authors":"Xihui Wang;Yong Zhang","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3649028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3649028","url":null,"abstract":"As corporate social responsibility (CSR) gains prominence, firms confront a strategic choice between symbolic CSR, which offers superficial signals and entails greenwashing risk, and substantive CSR, which eliminates this risk through genuine and impactful practices at a higher cost. Prior research primarily examined whether firms engage in CSR, with limited exploration on the choice between symbolic and substantive CSR once engagement is decided. This article develops a game-theoretic model to examine firms’ incentives for substantive CSR, and how these varies with market structures and relevant exogenous parameters, including price premium, greenwashing risk, and consumer boycotts. We find that firms implement substantive CSR only when the incremental marginal cost is sufficiently low, and this condition becomes more stringent under competition. Although competition discourages the adoption of substantive CSR, it increases consumer surplus and social welfare when substantive CSR is implemented. Counterintuitively, this article demonstrates that price premium and consumer boycotts do not always promote substantive CSR under competition due to strategic price interactions. Furthermore, we derive the equilibrium CSR strategy structure and identify a dynamic set of the equilibrium structures that always includes the symmetric structures. Interestingly, a prisoner’s dilemma, in which both firms implement Pareto-insufficient symbolic CSR, may arise when the set consists solely of the symmetric structures. Finally, we show that these results remain robust under model extensions and demonstrate that the presence of consumers who refuse to pay a price premium may surprisingly increase firms’ prices and profits.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"73 ","pages":"1301-1315"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146026324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article develops a game theory model of digital technology innovation (DTI) within a two-tier supply chain involving manufacturers and logistics providers, with a shared goal of carbon emission reduction. The model examines how manufacturers and logistics providers can adopt integrated innovation to enhance both carbon reduction and DTI performance while maximizing mutual benefits. The analysis yields three key findings: first, DTI does not always lead to carbon reduction within the supply chain through the integration of manufacturers and logistics providers. Instead, optimal integration strategies and responsibility allocation models should be contingent on the capabilities of manufacturers and logistics providers. Second, when logistics providers have significantly superior capabilities, they should assume full responsibility for both carbon reduction and DTI services. Conversely, when manufacturers have significantly superior capabilities, they should lead carbon reduction efforts while the logistics provider focuses on DTI. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate the robustness of the results with respect to different profit coefficients and cost-sharing ratios. Third, we extend the model to consider the carbon trading mechanism and external DTI effects on market demand and show that the findings are robust when these additional mechanisms and levers are introduced. Managerial relevance statement: First, this article offers managerial guidance by introducing three integrated innovation between logistics provider and manufacturer (II-LM) models that are adaptable to diverse industrial scenarios. Engineering managers should tailor their DTI strategies to the specific conditions of their enterprises. By adopting the II-LM strategies, they can enhance collaboration and achieve both carbon reduction and DTI engineering objectives. Second, the “double benefit” effect of carbon trading can encourage policymakers to accelerate the development of carbon trading policies and market mechanisms. Finally, for United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this article contributes to SDG 9, SDG 12, and SDG 13.
{"title":"Digital Technology Innovation Strategies From the Perspective of Manufacturer–Logistics Provider Integration for Carbon Emission Reduction","authors":"Weihua Liu;Siyu Wang;Xiao Alison Chen;Jingxin Dong","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3648753","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3648753","url":null,"abstract":"This article develops a game theory model of digital technology innovation (DTI) within a two-tier supply chain involving manufacturers and logistics providers, with a shared goal of carbon emission reduction. The model examines how manufacturers and logistics providers can adopt integrated innovation to enhance both carbon reduction and DTI performance while maximizing mutual benefits. The analysis yields three key findings: first, DTI does not always lead to carbon reduction within the supply chain through the integration of manufacturers and logistics providers. Instead, optimal integration strategies and responsibility allocation models should be contingent on the capabilities of manufacturers and logistics providers. Second, when logistics providers have significantly superior capabilities, they should assume full responsibility for both carbon reduction and DTI services. Conversely, when manufacturers have significantly superior capabilities, they should lead carbon reduction efforts while the logistics provider focuses on DTI. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate the robustness of the results with respect to different profit coefficients and cost-sharing ratios. Third, we extend the model to consider the carbon trading mechanism and external DTI effects on market demand and show that the findings are robust when these additional mechanisms and levers are introduced. <italic>Managerial relevance statement:</i> First, this article offers managerial guidance by introducing three integrated innovation between logistics provider and manufacturer (II-LM) models that are adaptable to diverse industrial scenarios. Engineering managers should tailor their DTI strategies to the specific conditions of their enterprises. By adopting the II-LM strategies, they can enhance collaboration and achieve both carbon reduction and DTI engineering objectives. Second, the “double benefit” effect of carbon trading can encourage policymakers to accelerate the development of carbon trading policies and market mechanisms. Finally, for United Nation's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this article contributes to SDG 9, SDG 12, and SDG 13.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"73 ","pages":"1274-1288"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146026470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-25DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2025.3646968
Carmen González-Zapatero;Javier González-Benito;Byung-Gak Son;Canan Kocabasoglu-Hillmer
The misalignment between the external risks a company faces, such as natural disasters or macroeconomic shocks, and the supply chain risk mitigation efforts (RMEs) it undertakes has received limited attention, particularly from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using contingency theory as a theoretical underpinning, this research introduces a novel fit measure, the risk mitigation deficit (RMD), to capture this misalignment. It then examines the impact of RMD on operational risk (OR), which refers to the failure of the supply chain to achieve key objectives such as cost efficiency, quality, and sustainability. SMEs face unique challenges, as RMEs are resource-intensive, requiring careful alignment of mitigation measures with risk exposure. This study contributes by analyzing data from 213 SMEs in the Spanish agrifood supply chain. The results suggest that both upstream and in-house RMD positively influence output OR, whereas downstream RMD shows no such relationship. Similarly, upstream RMD does not appear to influence input OR. A robustness test examining the effect of mere RME on OR confirmed that RMD possesses explanatory power over OR that RME alone does not. These findings underscore that a one-size-fits-all approach to supply chain risk management is ineffective, especially for resource-constrained SMEs. Instead, tailored, context-specific solutions are needed to help SMEs efficiently balance risk profiles and mitigation efforts.
{"title":"A Risk Mitigation Deficit Measure to Control Risks in Supply Chains: An SME Perspective","authors":"Carmen González-Zapatero;Javier González-Benito;Byung-Gak Son;Canan Kocabasoglu-Hillmer","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3646968","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3646968","url":null,"abstract":"The misalignment between the external risks a company faces, such as natural disasters or macroeconomic shocks, and the supply chain risk mitigation efforts (RMEs) it undertakes has received limited attention, particularly from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using contingency theory as a theoretical underpinning, this research introduces a novel fit measure, the risk mitigation deficit (RMD), to capture this misalignment. It then examines the impact of RMD on operational risk (OR), which refers to the failure of the supply chain to achieve key objectives such as cost efficiency, quality, and sustainability. SMEs face unique challenges, as RMEs are resource-intensive, requiring careful alignment of mitigation measures with risk exposure. This study contributes by analyzing data from 213 SMEs in the Spanish agrifood supply chain. The results suggest that both upstream and in-house RMD positively influence output OR, whereas downstream RMD shows no such relationship. Similarly, upstream RMD does not appear to influence input OR. A robustness test examining the effect of mere RME on OR confirmed that RMD possesses explanatory power over OR that RME alone does not. These findings underscore that a one-size-fits-all approach to supply chain risk management is ineffective, especially for resource-constrained SMEs. Instead, tailored, context-specific solutions are needed to help SMEs efficiently balance risk profiles and mitigation efforts.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"73 ","pages":"1289-1300"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11316280","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146026462","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-25DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2025.3648537
Guangming Cao;Yanqing Duan;John Edwards
This study develops and empirically validates an integrative model explaining how firms achieve digital innovation through the interplay among digital strategy, absorptive capacity, digital technology deployment, and environmental dynamism. Drawing on the content-context-process-outcome framework, digital strategy provides the guiding content; absorptive capacity and environmental dynamism act as contextual enablers; and digital technology deployment functions as the central process driving innovation outcomes. Survey data from 250 Chinese firms were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling and contextualized and externally validated through cross-case and cross-industry validation. The findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between digital technology deployment and innovation, challenging the linear assumption of prior research. While deployment is essential, overinvestment without strategic alignment leads to diminishing returns, underscoring the need for strategic coherence and absorptive alignment. Digital strategy and absorptive capacity directly and indirectly enhance innovation through digital technology deployment, while environmental dynamism amplifies the strategic-innovation linkage. Theoretically, the study contributes to the engineering management literature by advancing a holistic, dynamic, and nonlinear understanding of digital innovation as an optimization and orchestration process rather than a purely technological one. It offers a generalizable framework that strengthens integrative and system-oriented perspectives in engineering management research.
{"title":"Toward a Holistic Understanding of Digital Innovation: A Multidimensional Approach","authors":"Guangming Cao;Yanqing Duan;John Edwards","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3648537","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3648537","url":null,"abstract":"This study develops and empirically validates an integrative model explaining how firms achieve digital innovation through the interplay among digital strategy, absorptive capacity, digital technology deployment, and environmental dynamism. Drawing on the content-context-process-outcome framework, digital strategy provides the guiding content; absorptive capacity and environmental dynamism act as contextual enablers; and digital technology deployment functions as the central process driving innovation outcomes. Survey data from 250 Chinese firms were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling and contextualized and externally validated through cross-case and cross-industry validation. The findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between digital technology deployment and innovation, challenging the linear assumption of prior research. While deployment is essential, overinvestment without strategic alignment leads to diminishing returns, underscoring the need for strategic coherence and absorptive alignment. Digital strategy and absorptive capacity directly and indirectly enhance innovation through digital technology deployment, while environmental dynamism amplifies the strategic-innovation linkage. Theoretically, the study contributes to the engineering management literature by advancing a holistic, dynamic, and nonlinear understanding of digital innovation as an optimization and orchestration process rather than a purely technological one. It offers a generalizable framework that strengthens integrative and system-oriented perspectives in engineering management research.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"73 ","pages":"1147-1161"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145982163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-25DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2025.3648655
Ke-Chiun Chang;Xiaoran Sun;Xinyi Xiong;Shuyu Zhang;Yen-Chun Lai
We investigate why inventors choose specific collaborators and how different collaboration patterns shape the relationship between network stability and exploratory innovation in interdisciplinary contexts. Using nanoenergy patents (1998–2021) from the Derwent World Patent Index, we find that collaboration network stability hinders exploratory innovation, and this effect is moderated by assortativity. We classify collaborations into two types based on inventors' assortativity and network location: high assortativity collaboration, where core (peripheral) inventors work with others in similar locations, and low assortativity collaboration, where inventors collaborate across different network locations. We further examine how these collaborations influence the impact mechanism, challenging the conventional assumption of core–core collaboration. Robustness tests, including narrowed sample windows and alternative variable measures, confirm the consistency of results. Our findings provide nuanced insights into how partner selection and collaboration structures affect exploratory innovation, offering practical guidance for managers seeking to design effective collaboration strategies in technology-driven and interdisciplinary organizations.
{"title":"Collaborator Selection and Paths to Enhance Exploratory Innovation: Should Inventor Collaboration Seek Common Ground or Preserve Differences?","authors":"Ke-Chiun Chang;Xiaoran Sun;Xinyi Xiong;Shuyu Zhang;Yen-Chun Lai","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3648655","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3648655","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate why inventors choose specific collaborators and how different collaboration patterns shape the relationship between network stability and exploratory innovation in interdisciplinary contexts. Using nanoenergy patents (1998–2021) from the Derwent World Patent Index, we find that collaboration network stability hinders exploratory innovation, and this effect is moderated by assortativity. We classify collaborations into two types based on inventors' assortativity and network location: high assortativity collaboration, where core (peripheral) inventors work with others in similar locations, and low assortativity collaboration, where inventors collaborate across different network locations. We further examine how these collaborations influence the impact mechanism, challenging the conventional assumption of core–core collaboration. Robustness tests, including narrowed sample windows and alternative variable measures, confirm the consistency of results. Our findings provide nuanced insights into how partner selection and collaboration structures affect exploratory innovation, offering practical guidance for managers seeking to design effective collaboration strategies in technology-driven and interdisciplinary organizations.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"73 ","pages":"1086-1099"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how consumers search, interpret, and apply information, presenting both opportunities and challenges for engineering management in designing, managing, and using AI-enabled search systems. Despite substantial research, studies on AI-enabled consumer information search remain fragmented, providing limited integration of insights across technological, behavioral, and managerial perspectives. To address this, we conduct a systematic literature review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol and grounded theory, identifying four thematic areas: Information Search and AI recommendation, AI conversation, AI anthropomorphism, and AI retrieval, which are structured into a search-theme mapping framework to organize themes across the consumer search stages. The findings under each theme are synthesized to reveal research gaps, derive future research propositions, and highlight managerial implications. This synthesis shows how engineering managers can apply AI recommendation strategies, message framing, anthropomorphic design, modality, cognitive load, and generative AI timing to optimize consumer search, decision-making, and engagement. Overall, the study synthesizes fragmented knowledge, advances theoretical understanding, and provides a structured foundation for guiding future research and managerial practice in engineering management.
{"title":"Artificial Intelligence and Consumer Information Search: A Review, Synthesis, and Propositions","authors":"Sivaranjan Murugesan;Bharadhwaj Sivakumaran;Piyush Sharma;Laxminarayanan Ganesan","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3648018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3648018","url":null,"abstract":"Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how consumers search, interpret, and apply information, presenting both opportunities and challenges for engineering management in designing, managing, and using AI-enabled search systems. Despite substantial research, studies on AI-enabled consumer information search remain fragmented, providing limited integration of insights across technological, behavioral, and managerial perspectives. To address this, we conduct a systematic literature review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol and grounded theory, identifying four thematic areas: Information Search and AI recommendation, AI conversation, AI anthropomorphism, and AI retrieval, which are structured into a search-theme mapping framework to organize themes across the consumer search stages. The findings under each theme are synthesized to reveal research gaps, derive future research propositions, and highlight managerial implications. This synthesis shows how engineering managers can apply AI recommendation strategies, message framing, anthropomorphic design, modality, cognitive load, and generative AI timing to optimize consumer search, decision-making, and engagement. Overall, the study synthesizes fragmented knowledge, advances theoretical understanding, and provides a structured foundation for guiding future research and managerial practice in engineering management.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"73 ","pages":"1100-1115"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145982173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-25DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2025.3648352
Renzhi Gao;Shujie Liu;Xiangwei Kong;Gang Chen
Image analysis provides richer, more intuitive, and easily understandable insights, making it an increasingly indispensable tool in business. The exponential growth of image data has inspired management researchers to uncover the stories from image analysis. This study conducts a review of advanced management literature to examine how image analysis empowers managerial decisions. Drawing on information processing theory, we discuss the process of addressing management problems through image analysis from image perception, image encoding, and image-based decision-making. We reveal that image analysis provides novel perspectives, innovative methods, and emerging challenges for management, while also highlighting current research gaps in the application of image analysis within the management field. This study provides foundational guidelines for future explorations and innovations in image analysis for managerial decisions.
{"title":"Every Picture Tells a Managerial Story: A Review on Image Analysis Empowering Managerial Decisions","authors":"Renzhi Gao;Shujie Liu;Xiangwei Kong;Gang Chen","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3648352","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3648352","url":null,"abstract":"Image analysis provides richer, more intuitive, and easily understandable insights, making it an increasingly indispensable tool in business. The exponential growth of image data has inspired management researchers to uncover the stories from image analysis. This study conducts a review of advanced management literature to examine how image analysis empowers managerial decisions. Drawing on information processing theory, we discuss the process of addressing management problems through image analysis from image perception, image encoding, and image-based decision-making. We reveal that image analysis provides novel perspectives, innovative methods, and emerging challenges for management, while also highlighting current research gaps in the application of image analysis within the management field. This study provides foundational guidelines for future explorations and innovations in image analysis for managerial decisions.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"73 ","pages":"1132-1146"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145982169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2025.3647087
Yue Chen;Xuting Sun
A supply chain system comprises both upstream and downstre am members, and in many contexts, a final product assembly (FPA) step is required before products reach the market. Deciding whether and when this FPA step should be undertaken by upstream or downstream supply chain members has become a practical and timely challenge, particularly as 3-D printing technologies now enable and support flexible FPA processes. In this article, we tackle this critical question by developing analytical models grounded in game theory. In our basic model, we consider a supply chain with a single supplier and a single retailer selling a seasonal product. The FPA step incurs costs that vary depending on which supply chain agent performs the task. Our analysis reveals that, from the perspective of the entire supply chain system, the optimal assignment of FPA responsibility is uniquely determined by the respective FPA costs of the members. To achieve this optimal supply chain outcome, we need to identify the best-suited member to undertake the FPA process and coordinate the supply chain accordingly. To this end, we propose the use of a buyback contract and analytically derive its contract bounds. To generate further insights and demonstrate the robustness of our results, we extend our analysis to cover two additional scenarios: markets with two products and contexts where the retailer offers make-to-order services for FPA. Our findings confirm that the core results from the baseline model remain valid while also yielding several new insights. We believe that the results of this study not only make substantial contributions to the literature on supply chain systems but also offer actionable guidance to practitioners and systems’ engineers on how to optimally decide which agent should assume the FPA task within supply chain systems.
{"title":"Strategic Decisions for Final Product Assembly in 3-D Printing Supply Chains: A Supply Chain Positioning Perspective","authors":"Yue Chen;Xuting Sun","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3647087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3647087","url":null,"abstract":"A supply chain system comprises both upstream and downstre am members, and in many contexts, a final product assembly (FPA) step is required before products reach the market. Deciding whether and when this FPA step should be undertaken by upstream or downstream supply chain members has become a practical and timely challenge, particularly as 3-D printing technologies now enable and support flexible FPA processes. In this article, we tackle this critical question by developing analytical models grounded in game theory. In our basic model, we consider a supply chain with a single supplier and a single retailer selling a seasonal product. The FPA step incurs costs that vary depending on which supply chain agent performs the task. Our analysis reveals that, from the perspective of the entire supply chain system, the optimal assignment of FPA responsibility is uniquely determined by the respective FPA costs of the members. To achieve this optimal supply chain outcome, we need to identify the best-suited member to undertake the FPA process and coordinate the supply chain accordingly. To this end, we propose the use of a buyback contract and analytically derive its contract bounds. To generate further insights and demonstrate the robustness of our results, we extend our analysis to cover two additional scenarios: markets with two products and contexts where the retailer offers make-to-order services for FPA. Our findings confirm that the core results from the baseline model remain valid while also yielding several new insights. We believe that the results of this study not only make substantial contributions to the literature on supply chain systems but also offer actionable guidance to practitioners and systems’ engineers on how to optimally decide which agent should assume the FPA task within supply chain systems.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"73 ","pages":"1331-1347"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146026458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2025.3647474
Mengchu Li;Xu Guan;Ruixiao Dong
When placing product promotion in contents, creators face the challenge of balancing the limited resources between creating high-quality content and integrating advertising seamlessly to mitigate advertising disutility. We conceptualize a creator on a user-generated content platform who maximizes both traffic-based revenue and commissions from selling products. Our study investigates how the platform leverages content incentives to influence the creator’s devotion to content creation as well as viewers’ engagement. Our modeling analysis reveals several interesting findings. We observe that the platform provides high incentives when content quality is low, but reduces them once quality exceeds a certain threshold. Correspondingly, the creator first devotes full effort to content creation and then shifts more effort to advertising integration. Our results suggest that an increase in the creator’s efficiency in mitigating advertising disutility or the commission reduces the creator’s motivation in content creation, ultimately lowering the platform’s profit and consumer surplus. However, the creator does not always benefit from these improvements. In fact, the profit can diminish if the creator’s efficiency in advertising integration or the commission becomes high enough. Furthermore, we demonstrate the robustness of our insights under several key model extensions, including platform sales commissions and asymmetric cost structure.
{"title":"Designing Platform Incentives for Balancing Content Creation and Advertising Integration","authors":"Mengchu Li;Xu Guan;Ruixiao Dong","doi":"10.1109/TEM.2025.3647474","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2025.3647474","url":null,"abstract":"When placing product promotion in contents, creators face the challenge of balancing the limited resources between creating high-quality content and integrating advertising seamlessly to mitigate advertising disutility. We conceptualize a creator on a user-generated content platform who maximizes both traffic-based revenue and commissions from selling products. Our study investigates how the platform leverages content incentives to influence the creator’s devotion to content creation as well as viewers’ engagement. Our modeling analysis reveals several interesting findings. We observe that the platform provides high incentives when content quality is low, but reduces them once quality exceeds a certain threshold. Correspondingly, the creator first devotes full effort to content creation and then shifts more effort to advertising integration. Our results suggest that an increase in the creator’s efficiency in mitigating advertising disutility or the commission reduces the creator’s motivation in content creation, ultimately lowering the platform’s profit and consumer surplus. However, the creator does not always benefit from these improvements. In fact, the profit can diminish if the creator’s efficiency in advertising integration or the commission becomes high enough. Furthermore, we demonstrate the robustness of our insights under several key model extensions, including platform sales commissions and asymmetric cost structure.","PeriodicalId":55009,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management","volume":"73 ","pages":"1316-1330"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146026494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1109/TEM.2025.3647213
Minghao Zhu;Chen Liang;Peter K. C. Lee;Andy C. L. Yeung;Honggeng Zhou
In the face of escalating environmental challenges and growing regulatory and stakeholder pressures, improving firms’ environmental performance has become an essential strategic objective. Digital technologies (DTs) are increasingly viewed as transformative tools that can support firms in achieving sustainability goals. However, despite growing interest, existing empirical evidence on the impact of DTs deployment on environmental performance remains fragmented and inconclusive. Moreover, limited empirical research has examined how DTs interact with human-centered production systems, such as lean management, to shape environmental outcomes. Addressing these gaps, this study draws on the natural-resource-based view to investigate whether and how DTs deployment enhances firms’ environmental performance, and how this relationship is moderated by lean production and environmental leadership. Using longitudinal data from publicly listed firms in China, our analysis reveals that DTs deployment has a significant positive effect on environmental performance, and this effect is amplified in firms exhibiting higher levels of lean production and environmental leadership. These findings remain robust across various estimation strategies, including alternative variable specifications, instrumental variable methods, Heckman two-step correction, and a quasi-natural experiment. By providing large-scale empirical evidence on the environmental implications of digital transformation and its interaction with lean practices, this study contributes to the emerging literature on Industry 4.0 and sustainable operations, offering actionable insights for managers and policymakers committed to green transition.
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