Operation strategy in an E‐commerce platform supply chain: whether and how to introduce live streaming services?

Abstract E‐commerce platforms provide sales channels for enterprises to exploit more markets. Meanwhile, E‐commerce platform supply chain members are increasingly using live streaming services to boost profits. However, whether to introduce live streaming services to E‐commerce platform supply chain and which operation strategy to implement is unclear. In this study, we construct three models to examine the operation strategy in an E‐commerce platform supply chain by considering live streaming services. The results show that introducing live streaming services is always beneficial for both the E‐commerce platform and live streaming services supplier. When live streaming services is introduced and an appropriate revenue sharing proportion and signing fees are set by the E‐commerce platform supply chain members, the operation strategy of live streaming services introduced and implemented by the manufacturer is the consistent choice for E‐commerce platform supply chain members, which is also beneficial for E‐commerce platform supply chain system and consumers.