Research on Dynamic Decision-Making of Shared Supply Chain Considering Multi-Agent Altruistic Preferences

Shared supply chains (SSCs) represent a critical practice in the field of the sharing economy. With the aid of digital technologies, SSCs improve resource utilization through efficiently re-allocating and sharing. This paper develops a three-tier SSC model comprising a supplier, a retailer, and a sharing platform. The model is based on a Stackelberg dynamic framework and incorporates both resource sharing and altruistic behaviors. Our findings reveal that different altruistic modes significantly alter members’ decision logics: supplier altruism is manifested by lower supply prices and enhanced supply efforts; retailer altruism improves system supply efficiency through increased supply efforts; and the sharing platform, through resource integration and service optimization, comprehensively elevates overall SSC operations. Furthermore, numerical experimental analysis indicated that as altruistic parameters increased, overall system performance improved significantly. Notably, the marginal contribution of platform altruism surpassed that of both the supplier and the retailer, underscoring its pivotal role as a central hub in SSC systems. In addition, joint altruism can achieve a Pareto improvement for both individual members and overall system utility. This study provides an important theoretical basis for designing multi-agent collaborative mechanisms in SSCs.