Selection of the Manufacturing Outsourcing Contract Considering Knowledge Misappropriation

In manufacturing outsourcing among supply chain enterprises, the supplier may misappropriate the knowledge shared by the manufacturer. Consider this knowledge misappropriation, we develop two Stackelberg game models to explore the profits of a manufacturer and a supplier selected from alternative suppliers under a wholesale price contract and a revenue sharing contract. We discuss the influence of knowledge misappropriation on the conditions when each alternative supplier can provide the optimal wholesale price contract or the optimal revenue sharing contract that makes both sides profitable, and then analyze the influence of knowledge misappropriation on the conditions when the manufacturer should select the supplier who provides the optimal wholesale price contract or the optimal revenue sharing contract. This paper contributes to the research on manufacturing outsourcing among supply chain enterprises.