Financial Assistance in a Capital-Constrained Cellphone Supply Chain

In the cellphone industry, some manufacturers may face the problem of insufficient funds in the production process and some retailers can return unsold phones to the manufacturer at a repurchase price. Hence, in this article, we aim to investigate the supply chain operation and financing strategy under a buyback policy in the product lifecycle management of the cellphone. In this supply chain, the manufacturer can obtain money from two sources, one is the downstream retailer's advance payments, the other is the loans from a third-party financial institution. Through modeling, the optimal strategy of the supply chain is determined, and the influence of the deviation between repurchase price and residual value on the optimal strategy of the supply chain is analyzed. The results show that the deviation between the repurchase price and the residual value of the unsold cellphone has an impact on the manufacturer's decisions, and the repurchase price has an impact on the financing equilibrium. Finally, the numerical analysis verifies the results.