Research on coordination of the NEV battery closed-loop supply chain considering CSR and fairness concerns in third-party recycling models

Due to the pressure of the ecological environment and government, it is incumbent for enterprises to undertake corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, during the recycling process, awareness of equity concerns due to the distribution of benefits among members has intensified, and it is crucial to resolve channel conflicts and design a reasonable cooperation model to recycle used power batteries. Therefore, this paper constructs a closed-loop supply chain composed of power battery manufacturer, retailer and third-party collector based on the consideration of cascade utilization, in order to study the impact of the level of CSR and the degree of fairness concern on the decision-making of channel participants. Our research shows that: (1) Fairness concern behavior adversely affects the supply chain, which raises the sales price and reduces the collecting rate and the utility of the supply chain as a whole. (2) Undertaking CSR is beneficial to the development of the power battery market, and also helps to reduce the sense of unfairness among third-party recycling companies. (3) The cost-sharing contract effectively coordinates the distribution of supply chain benefits and improves the recycling rate. Finally, we further verify the correctness of the conclusions through numerical studies.