Dual-channel selection strategy of green supply chain considering online retail platform under different forms of government subsidies

To accelerate the sustainable development of green supply chains (GSCs), governments adopt different forms of subsidies, including research and development (R&D) cost subsidies and unit production subsidies, and manufacturers develop different dual-channel structure models based on these subsidies. We build one three-level game analysis model including a government, a manufacturer, and an online retail platform and solve it using the backward induction method, and we explore the optimal dual-channel structure model of GSCs. We find that when the manufacturer better controls the cost of green R&D, the unit production subsidy is better for producing green products and can also make the online retail platform more profitable. When the government offers the R&D cost subsidy, the manufacturer should select the online direct and online reselling channel structure model. In contrast, when offering the unit production subsidy, the manufacturer should adopt the online direct and online reselling channel structure model under certain conditions. Furthermore, when both the cost ratio of technology R&D and the marginal revenue rate of environmental improvement are lower than a certain threshold, the unit production subsidy is a better strategy for the government. Otherwise, we suggest that the government adopt an R&D cost subsidy strategy. [Submitted: 30 November 2022; Accepted: 27 December 2023]