Responsible production in agricultural supply chains: An impact of Information transparency

This thesis addresses a novel research problem in agricultural supply chains by integrating the study of responsible production with information transparency. Building on existing research in responsible production, the thesis clarify responsible production to production efficiency, food waste reduction, and product quality improvement and study one of these components in each chapter. Grounded in the research on information transparency, this thesis models the specific format of information transparency in agriculture using game theory and newsvendor model based on the knowledge of agricultural cooperatives, blockchain technology, product traceability, quality testing, and moral hazard. The first research content is about the impact of information transparency on production efficiency in agriculture. It investigates the formation of an agricultural cooperative that can achieve demand information transparency by horizontal demand information sharing among farmers. The second research content is about the impact of information transparency on food waste in agriculture. It analyzes the utilization of a blockchain-enabled traceability system that can achieve demand information transparency by vertical demand information sharing in the agricultural supply chain. Implementing a blockchain-based traceability system in agriculture can help farmers by reducing demand uncertainty, but it also enables downstream retailers to assess product freshness more accurately, potentially leading to increased food waste. The third research content is about the impact of information transparency on product quality in agriculture. It analyzes the usage of a blockchain-enabled traceability system that can achieve information transparency by quality information sharing in the multi-source and multi-tier agricultural supply chain. We find the conditions of each equilibrium and give suggestions to increase information transparency in different situations.