Abstract
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in the economic development of emerging markets. However, they face significant challenges in supply chain management due to constraints on various resources. My dissertation focuses on operational issues within two types of important and representative supply chains in developing countries, nanostore supply chains and agricultural supply chains, to provide insights for SMEs to enhance their operations under resource constraints and examine the efficiency of emerging resource allocation mechanisms. My dissertation includes three essays: The first essay studies distribution mechanisms in nanostore supply chains, where the stores face financial constraints. We analyze the optimal delivery frequency of the distributor within the supply chain. Additionally, we investigate the impact of financial credit on distribution dynamics and all players’ profits. Furthermore, we examine the retail pricing decisions of nanostores and their influence on the supply chain. In the second essay, we study farmers' quality-improvement efforts within inclusive business models, where a downstream firm provides support to smallholder farmers. We identify two impacts of the downstream buyer's support on farmers' efforts: reducing farmers' effort costs and adjusting farmers' effort competition. We also characterize the optimal support strategy for the downstream firm. Our analysis reveals that the downstream buyer may partially support farmers, leading to more intense competition and lower profits of non-supported farmers. The third essay studies downstream competition within agricultural supply chains in inclusive business models. Specifically, we examine the quality and pricing competition between a buyer, who supports farmers with free resources and sources products from them, and another buyer, who solely sources products. By identifying equilibriums under different percentages of supported farmers, we show that the buyers can avoid intense pricing competition and thus increase profits by supporting farmers.