Developing a causal model to evaluate the critical issues in reverse supply chain implementation

Exploring factors of the sustainable supply chain in the post-COVID-19 pandemic: SWARA approach

The present research aimed to provide a mechanism for enhancing sustainable supply chain survivability (SSCS) during and after the COVID-19 outbreak. Logistical and manufacturing operations have been restricted due to the severe lockdown, which significantly impacts the demand and supply of various items. COVID-19 has a massive effect on a multitude of units of various sectors. This research emphasized the important elements that must be considered to adapt the sustainable supply chain (SSC) practices. As a result, businesses are now attempting to improve the system for SSC. The stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) approach is used in this research to classify dynamic aspects for improving SSC survival in an epidemic condition. The results reveal that the viability of the supply chain network is the essential criteria for managing the relationships of suppliers and buyers and maximizing SSCS during and after COVID-19. This research will help businesses, manufacturers, and other stakeholders to concentrate on the described factors to achieve a brighter environment.

Coordination issues in managing the reverse supply chain: a systematic literature review and future research directions

Purpose

Reverse supply chain (RSC) is one of the ways to handle product returns efficiently. Recovery of residual value from product returns also helps in achieving sustainability. Its successful implementation requires coordination among all the channel members involved in the activities, from the acquisition to collection to the disposition of returned products. This article aims to review the literature about coordination issues in the RSC.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review of 151 articles published during 2004–2021 is carried out. Theory, context and methodology (TCM) framework of the literature review is used to identify the research gaps for future research directions.

Findings

This study identifies the characteristics of RSC coordination. It includes channel structures; coordination mechanisms; performance measuring parameters; the methodology applied and explored industries. The review shows that game-theoretical modeling in RSC coordination is the most commonly used method to coordinate the channels. It was found that issues like disruption, fairness and corporate social responsibility are not explored in-depth and offer much potential for future research.

Originality/value

There are very limited studies on coordination issues in the RSC. The proposed articles add value by considering RSC issues from different strategic, government, consumers' behavior and functionality decision-making point of view.

Analysis of factors impacting survivability of sustainable supply chain during COVID-19 pandemic: an empirical study in the context of SMEs

Purpose

Nowadays, many firms are finding ways to enhance the survivability of sustainable supply chains (SUSSCs). The present study aims to develop a model for the SUSSCs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

With the help of exhaustive literature review, constructs and items are identified to collect the responses from different SMEs. A total of 278 complete responses are received and 6 hypotheses are developed. Hypotheses testing have been done using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings

Major constructs identified for the study are supply chain (SC) performance measurement under uncertainty (SPMU), supply chain cooperation (SCCO), supply chain positioning (SCP), supply chain administration (SCA), supply chain feasibility (SCF) and the SUSSCs. From statistical analysis of the data collected, it can be concluded that the considered latent variables contribute significantly towardsthe model fit.

Research limitations/implications

The present study contributes to the existing literature on disruptions and survivability. The study can be further carried out in context to different countries and sectors to generalize the findings.

Practical implications

The research findings will be fruitful for SMEs and other organizations in developing strategies to improve survivability during uncertain business environments.

Originality/value

The study has developed a model that shows that the identified latent variables and their indicators contribute significantly toward the dependent variable, i.e. survivability. It contributes significantly in bridging the research gaps existing in context to the survivability of SMEs.

A mixed-method approach for modelling customer-centric mobile phone reverse logistics: application of social media data

Purpose

Recently, reverse logistics (RL) has become more prominent due to growing environmental concerns, social responsibility, competitive advantage and high efficiency by customers because of the expansion of product selection and shorter product life cycle. However, effective implementation of RL results in some direct advantages, the most important of which is winning customer satisfaction that is vital to a firm’s success. Therefore, paying attention to customer feedback in supply chain and logistics processes has recently increased so that manufacturers have decided to transform their RL into customer-centric RL. Hence, this paper aims to identify the features of a mobile phone which affect consumer purchasing behaviour and to analyse the interrelationship among them to develop a framework for customer-centric RL. These features are studied based on website analysis of several mobile phone manufacturers. The special focus of this paper is on social media data (Twitter) in an attempt to help the decision-making process in RL through a big data analysis approach.

Design/methodology/approach

A portfolio of mobile phone features that affect consumer’s mobile phone purchasing decisions has been taken from website analysis by several mobile phone manufacturers to achieve this objective. Then, interrelationships between the identified features have been established by using big data supplemented with interpretive structural modelling (ISM). Apart from that, cross-impact matrix multiplication, applied to classification analysis, was carried out to graphically represent these features based on their driving power and dependence.

Findings

During the study, it has been observed from the ISM that the chip (F5) is the most significant feature that affects customer’s buying behaviour; therefore, mobile phone manufacturers realize that this is to be addressed first.

Originality/value

The focus of this paper is on social media data (Twitter) so that experts can understand the interaction between mobile phone features that affect consumer’s decisions on mobile phone purchasing by using the results.

Outsourcing and reverse supply chain performance: a triple bottom line approach

Purpose

Outsourcing has become a strategic decision for most of the organizations in the present context of globalization and circular economy. The objective of proposed study is to empirically investigate the relationship between the outsourcing benefits and triple bottom line (TBL)-based performance of reverse supply chain (RSC) comprising of economic, environmental and social factors.

Design/methodology/approach

In the present study, the partial least square path approach of structural equation modeling has been applied for testing hypotheses. A questionnaire was developed for collecting the information and responses from the experts of electronics industry, India. Measurement models were tested for ensuring the fitness of data for further applying partial least square path approach of SEM.

Findings

The results provide insightful information on outsourcing and RSC performance. It reveals that outsourcing decisions are important and have great influence on the economic, environmental and social performance of RSC.

Research limitations/implications

The study will provide useful guidance to the organizations for outsourcing decisions. One of the limitations of the study is that it has considered data collected from the Indian electronics industry. Therefore, results may not be generalized.

Originality/value

The third-party service providers have core competencies, and they are the experts of providing RSC services. It is also apparent from the exploration of past research and theoretical background that there are limited number of studies focusing on the impact of outsourcing decisions in RSC performance specifically from the TBL perspective. Hence, the proposed study is an effort to explore the impact of outsourcing RSC activities on the performance of RSC from a sustainability perspective.

Identification and prioritization of issues to implementation of information-facilitated product recovery system for a circular economy

Purpose

Information-facilitated product recovery system (IFPRS) has captivated industry attention and has developed into a matter of consideration among the researchers because of enhanced climate concerns, jurisdictive logics and societal liabilities. Although IFPRS implementation has become an essential aspect in manufacturing industries functional in the developed nations, still, limited consideration has been given in the literature to analyze the issues to IFPRS implementation for a circular economy (CE) in emerging and developing nations. Therefore, the objective of this study is to recognize issues to implementing IFPRS for a CE in context of select manufacturing industries in India.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, 24 potential issues are established from the literature and from suggestions from the experts. The issues are clubbed under five different perspectives of technical, government, organization, policy and knowledge. Further, fuzzy VIKOR technique is applied on the results obtained to prioritize the identified issues. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to check the robustness of the framework.

Findings

The present study shows that lack of skills and expertise in IFPRS implementation for a CE (I2), deficient capital to implement a CE in IFPRS (I9), inadequate in adopting recent IT technology (I18), feasibility of IFPRS employment for a CE (I6) and no efficient training and program to CE adoption (I21) are the top five potential issues in implementing IFPRS practices for a CE in Indian manufacturing industries.

Research limitations/implications

In literature, limited study has been observed on determining issues to implementation of IFPRS for a CE. A more systematic method and statistical confirmation is necessary to establish further new confronting issues. This study is limited to Indian manufacturing industries.

Originality/value

The main contribution of this study includes identification of issues and later prioritizing them to reflect their severity. This would help the industry practitioners to formulate strategies for handling the issues conveniently.