The Effects of FC and CSR on Bilateral Quality Efforts of Agricultural Products Supply Chain
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Please find the attached document for comments.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
- Though the motivating scenarios are clear the contribution of presenting a novel problem is not convincing. The abstract does not clearly explain the contribution.
Response: We add the aim and finding of the article in the abstract in red color
- The abstract should be more straightforward for the reader regarding the proposed method (APSC sharing CSR) and its motivation. The abstract should present some main points for the readers, such as the main contributions, the proposed method, the main problem, the obtained results, the data sets, the comparative methods, etc.
Response: we have revised our abstract in the content and form.
- The authors have not identified the novelty nor described how CSR is different from existing work.
Response: we have added the content in Page 4 to describe haw CSR is different from existing work as below:
The above literatures have studied the impact of CSR on relevant decisions by single member of general supply chain, while there is less research on the impact of CSR shared by members and CSR on agricultural product quality. The quality and safety of agricultural products are related to social stability, and sharing CSR among members of the APSC will affect bilateral quality decisions and further ensure the quality of agricultural products. Therefore, it is necessary to study the impact of CSR shared by both members of APSC on the quality of agricultural products.
- Mention main contributions of this paper in introduction section.
We have added the contributions of part 6 in Page 19 as below:
In this study, we make three theoretical contributions as following:
Firstly, we study the bilateral quality improvement mechanism. Although the research on quality control in APSC is a hot topic at present, most of the researches focused on the bilateral quality efforts decision of APSC only from the agricultural products supplier or agricultural products seller respectively, but just only one literature mentioned the bilateral quality efforts decision from both supplier and seller [41]. Our research can improve the quality of agricultural products to more realistic conditions in terms of supply chain management.
Secondly, we consider both fairness concern and CSR to study the quality effort improvement. We proved that fairness concern of agricultural products supermarket can take the role of "profit distribution mechanism", but it is not conducive to improving bilateral quality efforts resulting in the inability to improve market demand, and it is not conducive to improving the utility of the supply chain system and consumer surplus; both members of the APSC sharing CSR can not only improve the quality of agricultural products and promote the expansion of market demand, but also can achieve Pareto improvement of both profit of all members and supply chain system.
- Add a comparison table to clearly shows the differences between APSC sharing CSR and other existing schemes.
In the part of literature review, we illustrate the differences between our article and other existing schemes, as below:
The above literatures have studied the impact of CSR on relevant decisions by single member of general supply chain, while there is less research on the impact of CSR shared by members and CSR on agricultural product quality. The quality and safety of agricultural products are related to social stability, and sharing CSR among members of the APSC will affect bilateral quality decisions and further ensure the quality of agricultural products. Therefore, it is necessary to study the impact of CSR shared by both members of APSC on the quality of agricultural products.
Besides, in page 12-13, we compared Model I and Model II to analyze whether CSR affects the operation of APSC, and we get that “sharing CSR among members of APSC can lead to an increase in both members' own profits and utility, supply chain system utility, and consumer surplus. This is because members of APSC invest in bilateral quality efforts to promote the improvement of agricultural product quality, stimulate market demand, and ensure the stable supply of high-quality agricultural products. This not only benefits members themselves and the supply chain system, but also brings welfare to consumers.”
- Add some recent literature regarding APSC sharing CSR in the literature review section of the manuscript. I mean related schemes are outdated.
We added the recent literature regarding fairness concern and APSC sharing CSR in the literature review section in Page 4.
[1] Liang, X.; Wei, C. L. Decision and coordination of dual channel closed-loop supply chain considering social responsibility and consumer green preferences. Control engineering, 2023, ahead of print.
[2] Lie, J. J.; Liu, M. T. Effect of nonlinear production cost on sharing strategy of social responsibility in supply chain. Industrial Engineering and Management, 2021, 26, 57-65.
[3] Kang, K.; Wang, M. Z.; Luan, X. F. Decision-making and coordination with government subsidies and fairness concerns in the poverty alleviation supply chain. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 2021, 152.
- Statistical tests to judge about the significance of the method’s results is absent. Without such a statistical test, the conclusion cannot be supported. It will be good to present a statistical test in the comparison of the results with other published methods. This can help to support the claim on improved results obtained with the selection methods studied.
In this paper, we set theoretical model to study the effect of fairness concern and CSR on the quality effort improvement of APSC. The theoretical model is the abstraction and simplification of reality. It is necessary to conduct case study on the APSC in real practice.
In fact, we are designing a survey questionnaire for empirical research, we can analyze the effects of only fairness concern, only CSR and both them on the quality improvement of agricultural products, and maybe we will illustrate the crossing effect between CSR and fairness concern which is difficult to be proved in mathematic model. But the data collection about the questionnaire is not easy, we need some time to collect and analyze the data.
- Some more recommendations and conclusions should be discussed about the paper considering the experimental results. The Conclusion section is weak. Furthermore, there is not any discussion section about the results. The conclusion section needs significant revisions. It should briefly describe the findings of the study and some more directions for further research. The authors should describe academic implications, major findings, shortcomings, and directions for future research in the conclusion section. The conclusion in its current for is confused in general. Concerning Conclusion section, it would be better "Conclusions and Future Research", and it is strongly suggested to include future research of this manuscript. What will be happen next? What we supposed to expect from the future papers?
We rewrite the part 6, divide the conclusion into four parts: conclusion, Theoretical implications, limitation and future direction in page 18-19, as below:
Subject to word limit, please see the attachmentAuthor Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The article presents a study examining the correlation between fairness concern (FC) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the agricultural supply chain. The study is ground-breaking and tackles a research deficit within the subject area. This is the first investigation that simultaneously analyses the impact of FC and CSR on the quality of agricultural product supply. This is the primary study which assesses concurrently the effects of FC and CSR on the durability of the agricultural product supply. The methodology used is sound. Four models were constructed, and their assumptions were presented. A Stackelberg game analysis was carried out. The research results confirm that the greatest positive effect on the quality of deliveries is provided by CSR from both participants of the supply chain. The bibliography is up-to-date and properly chosen. The only thing that needs improvement is the integration of mathematical formulas in the text (align them vertically).
Author Response
We have revised our manuscript using the journal template.
We have modified our manuscript, such as abstract, introduction, conclusion, and so on.
Reviewer 3 Report
An important topic due to the quality of products from the manufacturer to the customer.
The text will be more readable if you put the formulas in a table (Chapter 3). For example: No, Assumption, Formula, Description.
Similarly in chapter 5: No., Proposition, Formula, Description.
Author Response
An important topic due to the quality of products from the manufacturer to the customer.
The text will be more readable if you put the formulas in a table (Chapter 3). For example: No, Assumption, Formula, Description.
Similarly in chapter 5: No., Proposition, Formula, Description.
We have revised our manuscript using the journal template and article structure.
Reviewer 4 Report
Dear Authors,
This is a very relevant and interesting article with practical implications.
However, it should be improved.
The aim of the article should be formulated. There are no results and discussion section, although it would be important. The section 4, 5, 6 should be integrated in the results as a subtopic.
The discussion section should put the findings in perspective. Findings of other papers should be presented here which researched similar topic. Comparison with them would be important.
The conclusion should be a couple of short strong paragraphs going back to the value of the research as proposed in the problem statement. The conclusion should not include any summarizing. It should focus mainly on the value of the research and how it has contributed to addressing the problem identified in the problem statement.
The last paragraph of the conclusion is a limitation which should be discussed separately.
Author Response
- We add the aim of the article in the abstract in red as following: The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of fairness concern and corporate social responsibility (CSR) a on quality improvement of the agricultural products supply chain (APSC) composed of an agricultural product processor (processor) and an agricultural product supermarket (supermarket) so as to ensure the stable supply of high-quality agricultural products.
- For we add the proofs for the propositions and conclusions, so we think it is better not to integrate the section 4, 5, 6 to avoid each subtopic too long.
- We add the theoretical implications and contributions in the Part 6 in Page 19 which can show comparison with the similar topic.
- We have added the limitation in Part 6.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Accepted for Publication
Need only minor English language editing
Author Response
We have revised the English language with the help of an English teacher, and the revised contents is shown as red color. For example, in page 1, the red words “central document No. 1” in the first paragraph, and “the fundamental reasons for the quality and safety issues of agricultural products lie in the lack of CSR in APSC and inadequate quality control” in the second paragraph, etc.
Reviewer 4 Report
Dear Authors,
You have improved your manuscript a lot.
Congrat.
Author Response
we have check the words, formulas, contents and references in the paper, and revised them in red color.
