Optimising competitive and cooperative strategies in a CCUS supply chain integrating digital technologies: a biform game analysis

The application of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) technologies creates a CCUS supply chain, in which internal carbon trading agreements among supply chain participants are formed. Such agreements are highly beneficial, prompting participants to consider cooperative investment in CCUS technologies.Given participants’ tendency for such cooperation and digital technologies’ pivotal role in cost-effective internal carbon trading, this paper proposes a novel biform game model framework to optimise competitiveand cooperative strategies within the supply chain. Findings reveal that cooperative investment strategies induce Pareto improvements in the application levels of digital and CCUS technologies. The increased production cost savings from carbon utilisation will encourage participants to improve the application levels of digital and CCUS technologies. When cooperative opportunity costs fall within a certain threshold range, the supplier will cooperate with the manufacturer to invest in CCUS technologies. Our findings provide new insights into the strategic management of supply chains digitalisation.