A bi-level programming model for decentralized manufacturer-distributer supply chain considering cooperative advertising

This paper studies a bi-level decentralized supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one distributor. Along with global advertising, the manufacturer participates in part of local advertising expenditure incurred by the distributor. Bi-level programming is applied to model the relationship between the manufacturer and distributer under two power scenarios of Stackelberg game framework. In the first scenario, we consider the manufacturer as the leader and in the latter, we allow the distributer to act as the dominant member of the supply chain. In order to tackle bi-level programming models, a meta-heuristic genetic algorithm with hierarchical structure is developed for each scenario and optimal policies for the members in terms of pricing, advertising, inventory and demand allocation are determined. Finally, several computational experiments are conducted on data obtained from an automotive spare parts supply chain to demonstrate the validity of the developed models and compare the benefits of members as well as of the entire system.