Supply–Demand Docking Joint Decision of Cross-border E-commerce under the Influence of Internet Celebrity

ABSTRACT

While cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) is booming in the world today, there are many obstacles hindering the development of the market, such as fake commodities and inferior goods, unreliable and lengthy transit times, and so on. The emergence of Internet celebrity brings new vitality to CBEC, as they build a bridge of trust between brand merchants and consumers. At the same time, the more complex CBEC supply chain with Internet celebrity involved needs to be integrated. This study propose a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) supply–demand docking business model and accordingly four incentive mechanisms (namely high-quality production incentive, Internet celebrity marketing incentive, equity sharing incentive and cooperative voting mechanism) to achieve the CBEC supply chain vertical integration. Our analysis shows that a higher commission proportion of CBEC platform results in lower quality improvement level and demand, and higher sale price and consumer experience level. We also find that joint decision-making actually realizes Pareto improvement of decentralized decision-making. Moreover, the introduction of cooperative voting mechanism ensures the fair expression of the interest demands of participants in the joint decision, providing a win-win situation for all parties. This study provides a sufficient basis for the vital role of Internet celebrity in CBEC.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-border e-commerce
• internet celebrity
• supply–demand docking
• joint decision

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. As a well-known research institution in China, iResearch is committed to providing customers with the most professional research and consulting services in Internet related fields in the Chinese market. Its research coverage in the Internet and new economy fields is at the leading level in the industry.

2. As one of the most popular instant messaging and social networking brands in China, Weibo realizes real-time information sharing, communication and interaction in the form of text, pictures, videos and other multimedia. As of December 2020, the number of monthly active users of microblog has reached 521 million.

3. The world’s leading third-party data mining and integration marketing organization of mobile Internet and the first authoritative institution in China to focus on the research of mobile Internet, e-commerce and other industries.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Programs of Ministry of Education, China, under Grant [number 17YJC630097], Liberal Arts Development Fund of Nankai University [number ZB21BZ0214], and the National Social Science Foundation of China [number 17CTQ046].

Notes on contributors

Xinman Lu

Xinman Lu received her Ph.D. degree in Management Science and Engineering from Business School, Nankai University, Tianjin, China, in 2015. She is currently an associate professor with School of Management Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China. Her research interests cover electronic commerce, supply chain management, and IT service supply chain.

Yijing Xie

Yijing Xie received the B.S. degree in management science from the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China, in 2019. She is currently pursuing the master’s degree in management science and engineering with School of Management Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China. Her research interests include e-commerce operation and supply chain management.

Boxin Zhang

Boxin Zhang received the B.S. degree in management science from the Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China, in 2020. She is currently pursuing the master’s degree in management science and engineering with School of Management Science and Engineering, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, China. Her research interests include cloud computing and IT service supply chain management.

Kai Li

Kai Li is a professor in Business School, Nankai University, China. His research interests include electronic economy, electronic commerce, business intelligence, mobile commerce, online privacy, and social media analytics. He has published many papers in some top journals including Decision Support Systems, Information and Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Journal of Small Business Management, Information Processing and Management, PLOS ONE, Internet Research, and so on.