Closed-loop supply chain value co-creation considering equity crowdfunding

•Manufacturer should attract consumers to participate in value co-creation.•Consumer participation in value co-creation compensates for loss of excess income.•Manufacturer should calculate the capital required for crowdfunding projects.•Investment behaviors are greatly affected by other investors’ behaviors.•Equity crowdfunding investors should research extensively before taking part. Increasingly serious environmental problems and the important role of consumers in value creation activities have made closed-loop supply chain value co-creation a popular research topic. Equity crowdfunding provides a new way for investors outside the closed-loop supply chain to cooperate with enterprises within the chain. This makes these enterprises much easier to finance and achieve environmental protection goals. However, the impact of equity crowdfunding on value co-creation in closed-loop supply chains has not been studied in depth. This study uses multi-level programming and Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions to construct and solve a closed-loop supply chain value co-creation model that considers equity crowdfunding, and obtain the optimal equity transfer ratio. The smartphone closed-loop supply chain is used to analyze the impact of equity crowdfunding on closed-loop supply chain value co-creation through numerical simulation and to propose an effective path to achieve a win–win situation between the economic value and environmental value of the closed-loop supply chain. The research found the following: (1) Although the manufacturer pays attention to consumer value and then its value and the excess income of equity crowdfunding investors are lost, value of the consumer, retailer, remanufacturer, and closed-loop supply chain as well as the environmental value are increased; (2) The manufacturer should actively create conditions to attract consumers to participate in value co-creation, and allocate added value with equity crowdfunding investors according to the equity transfer ratio and investment amount in time; (3) The manufacturer and equity crowdfunding investors should strengthen cooperation, jointly determine the appropriate capital demand and expected yields, and strive to increase extra income; (4) The retailer and remanufacturer should focus on increasing product sales and recycling quantity of waste products to promote the achievement of economic and environmental value.