Network Equilibrium Analysis of Dual-Channel Environmental Hotel Supply Chains with M&A Using Variational Inequalities

This paper develops a dual-channel environmental hotel supply chain equilibrium model to investigate the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), decision makers’ altruistic preferences, and consumers’ low-carbon preferences under demand uncertainty. The model incorporates hotels, online travel agency (OTA) platforms, and demand markets and captures interactions under both the merchant and agency models. Variational inequalities are employed to describe interdependent decision-making behaviors, and the projection gradient algorithm is used to obtain equilibrium solutions. The numerical analysis reveals that sustainability factors directly affect the profitability of both hotels and OTAs. Under the agency model, higher commission rates reduce hotel profits while significantly increasing OTA gains. When comparing the merchant and agency models without M&A, the merchant model yields higher hotel profits, whereas the agency model favors OTAs. Furthermore, when M&A is combined with altruistic preferences, the utility of hotels and OTAs under the agency model reaches the highest level, while M&A offers limited advantages for OTAs. Overall, the findings highlight that sustainability factors, altruistic preferences, and M&A jointly interact with merchant and agency governance structures to shape profitability and utility. These results provide theoretical insights and managerial implications for developing resilient, cooperative, and low-carbon hotel supply chains under demand uncertainty.