The Intelligent Upgrading of Logistics between an Internet Enterprise and a Logistics Enterprise Based on Differential Game Theory

At the background of “Internet + Logistics”, intelligent logistics has high operational efficiency and provides a superior customer experience, meeting the requirements of sustainable development. It also plays a crucial role in promoting the modernization of the industrial chain in China. This paper develops a mathematic model based on differential game theory, which sets the intelligent level of logistics and the goodwill of intelligent logistics as state variables. The research reveals the collaborative strategies between a logistics enterprise and an Internet enterprise for the intelligent upgrading of logistics, and separately calculates the optimal effort levels and optimal revenues of participating enterprises under the non-cooperative mechanism, the cost-sharing mechanism, and the cooperative mechanism. This paper also observes the crucial parameters that affect the optimal revenue for the intelligent upgrading of logistics. The research findings are as follows: (1) Cost-sharing mechanism and cooperative mechanism can motivate the Internet enterprise and the logistics enterprise to improve their effort levels and increase the total revenue, which achieves the Pareto improvement. Under the cooperative mechanism, the intelligent level of logistics and the goodwill of intelligent logistics are the highest. (2) Participating enterprises can promote the intelligent upgrading of logistics by accumulating innovative resources for intelligent logistics, attaining cost-conversion efficiency, and cultivating customer preferences for intelligent logistics services. (3) When the revenue-sharing ratio of the logistics enterprise is relatively low, although the cost-sharing mechanism can continuously motivate a logistics enterprise to make an effort in the intelligent upgrading of logistics, it is not conducive to enhance the goodwill of intelligent logistics. This paper highlights the pivotal role of enterprise collaboration in the intelligent upgrading of logistics, and proposes practical recommendations.