Sustainable reverse supply chains and circular economy in multichannel retail returns

The percentage of products being returned in multichannel retail are high and further increasing, yet many retailers and manufacturers are unaware of the importance and scale of this issue. They consider dealing with returns as a cost of doing business and are oblivious of the potential for conflicts between their corporate social responsibility commitments and their returns practices. This article investigates how far sustainable practices and circular economy concepts have been implemented in retail returns systems; it identifies vulnerabilities, barriers, and challenges to the implementation of sustainable, circular practices and suggests ways to overcome them, as sustainability, loss prevention, and profit optimisation can go hand in hand with the right approach to the organisation of the reverse supply chain. Implications of this research on strategic management are outlined. The research was conducted using in‐depth interviews and observations with four major retailers in the United Kingdom, 17 structured interviews, 100 retailer website reviews, and three retail community workshops, all with British and other European retailers.     

Antecedents of supply chain visibility in retail supply chains: A resource-based theory perspective

Although visibility has become a popular buzzword in the supply chain literature it remains an ill-defined and poorly understood concept. It is assumed that if companies across supply chains have visibility of demand, inventory levels, processes, etc., that organizational performance improves. This research explores the antecedents of high levels of supply chain visibility from a resource-based theory perspective across five different external supply chain linkages. We find that the level of visibility across these linkages differs considerably based on various contributing factors which are both technology and non-technology based. Using resource-based theory, we identify those factors that can give a sustainable competitive advantage to a supply chain linkage through a “distinctive” or high level of visibility.     

Valuing time in supply chains: Establishing limits of time-based competition

Over the past two decades the growth in international trade and the offshore migration of US manufacturing have created global supply chains with longer lead-times and slower response. This suggests that traditional supply chains have encountered limits to time-based competition in which the cost of faster replenishment exceeds the benefits. This paper explores and quantifies those limits to time-based competition in make-to-stock supply chains for functional products (products with stable demand over relatively long life cycles).     

Practices and strategies for sustainability-related risk management in multi-tier supply chains

This study investigates how sustainability-related risks are managed in multi-tier supply chains. It focuses on the strategies and practices that companies use to manage sustainability-related risks and how these differ between supply chains and supply chain tiers. We use a multiple-case study with 25 companies forming 5 multi-tier supply chains. As a result of this study, we present a conceptual framework for sustainability-related risk management practices in multi-tier supply chains and apply it empirically by defining sustainability-related risk management profiles for the case supply chains. We show that in multi-tier supply chains, companies need direct and indirect collaboration and direct and indirect monitoring practices for managing sustainability-related risks emanating from not only their first-tier suppliers but also lower-tier suppliers. Our framework helps purchasing and supply chain managers understand the dimensions of sustainability-related risk management in a multi-tier setting and develop strategies and practices for mitigating and managing those risks. We also empirically show the challenge of extending sustainability-related risk management practices beyond first-tier suppliers due to the different practices in different supply chain tiers.     

Cooperation strategies in port-oriented bulk supply chains: aligning concept and practice

It seems intuitively obvious that firms in supply chains may have more to gain than to lose from learning to cooperate; but it is now more than two decades since Poirier [1999. Advanced Supply Chain Management. San Francisco, CA: Barrett-Koehler] and others called for cooperation in order to capture mutual gains in supply networks and even now ‘cooperation is neither common nor easy’. The simple fact is that not only are supply chains exceptionally complex but so too is the ‘process of cooperating’ – often in the context of antitrust legislation and competition policy. This paper argues that there is a critical need to rethink the principles and processes of cooperation within the broader framework of the competitive behaviour of firms and business strategy. Particularly, it suggests that the relatively recent thinking of Greenwald and Kahn [2005 Greenwald, B., and J. Kahn. 2005. Competition Demystified A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy. New York, NY: Portfolio, The Penguin Group. [Google Scholar]. Competition Demystified A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy. New York, NY: Portfolio, The Penguin Group] in their ‘radically simplified approach to business strategy’ offers sound conceptual insights into cooperation and cooperative strategies for firms not only in markets but also in chains. Furthermore, it notes that the analytical framework for cooperation and cooperative strategies which the authors develop is far removed from the notion of cooperation as ‘commitment and trust and shared thinking’ and from ‘buyer/seller reciprocity’ and ‘collaborative attitudes’ which tend to underwrite much contemporary thinking and research. The paper also argues that the Greenwald and Kahn framework – its single intelligence model of cooperation and cooperative strategies – resonates with real-world relevance, at least for particular supply chains. The paper focuses attention on research into globally significant export coal chains from major east coast Australian ports and in brief case studies finds substantial alignment between concept and practice.     

Tax strategies and organisational communication in MNC supply chains: case studies

Communication is a key component of operational efficiency which in turn contributes to a firm’s profitability by reducing costs. In addition taxes are a significant expense for profitable firms. Multiple methods for tax avoidance have been developed by firms and their advisors but the effects on operations are rarely considered. Evidence was found that tax avoidance decisions are made in isolation at the head office and operational monetary and cultural costs are not fully accounted for. Better communication can mitigate these disruptions but it is not a primary concern of central management. Depending on its operational intrusiveness, there is variation in levels of organisational disruption caused by the tax avoidance method implemented. These effects can be far reaching. Careful consideration of organisational costs for each tax avoidance method should be made prior to any being adopted. A framework to help practitioners focus on total costs versus tax savings, is proposed.     

Government intervention on cooperation,competition, and coopetition of humanitarian supply chains

We considered a humanitarian environment composed of donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that the non-profits may adopt competitive or coopetitive inter-organizational interaction for managing the disasters. We also assumed that the government intervenes in the relief operations by applying one of its two policies; social welfare maximization (SWM) or budget consumption minimization (BCM). Using game theory (GT) approach, we develop 4 scenarios and, as a result, 4 mathematical programming models for examining the effect of the NGOs interactions and the government policies on the performance of donors, NGOs and government. We find that coopetition of NGOs facilitates the achievement of the government's objectives, and it also helps the non-profits to become more successful in providing relief. The government prefers to provide the indirect relief to the nonprofits to manage emergency operations successfully, and the financial aids are given only in the condition of reducing the level of NGOs cooperation. We also conclude that the cooperation of NGOs increases the donors' utility. A numerical example is conducted to test the findings of the models.     

Sustainability concerns in luxury supply chains: European brand strategies and French consumer expectations

Sustainability in supply chain management has become a concern in both research and practice. Although consumption and purchasing have been significantly explored in the luxury sector, a gap in supply chain studies is still evident. Therefore, the aim of this article is to examine how industry bodies and supply chain partners address sustainability concerns in the European luxury sector and how they respond to consumer expectations. In an explanatory study, we have collected data about sustainable supply chain practices in 11 European luxury good companies, by interviewing and surveying 13 managers. In a first consumer study, we held interviews with French luxury consumers in Bordeaux about their sustainability expectations (N = 170). The results show that while the distribution of attention is dependent on the respective supply chain activities, luxury goods companies address sustainability concerns and aim to take responsibility for their activities. However, the emphasis is on the dimension of economic sustainability. A comparison with sustainability expectations of French luxury goods consumers suggests that business practices are not perfectly well aligned with these expectations. Consumers put more emphasis on social and environmental sustainability dimensions. On the other hand, business activities concerning waste reduction and raw material management rather well match consumer expectations.     

Dynamic competitive retail pricing behavior with uncertainty and learning

When competing retailers lack full information about rivals' decision processes, how will dynamic pricing behavior vary from patterns observed in more traditional static or full-information models? We investigate this question in a dynamic alternating-moves duopoly model. Retailers update (linear) conjectures about rivals' future prices in a Bayesian fashion. We show that as observed and expected prices converge, a pricing equilibrium is always achieved, whether or not the conjectured and actual values of the slope of the rival's best response function are consistent. Assuming specific parameter values, we compare equilibrium prices and associated profits in our Bayesian learning model with those obtained under the assumptions of static Nash behavior, collusive behavior and dynamically optimal behavior with full information. We apply the notions of strategic substitutability and strategic complementarity to the analysis and find that when products are strategic complements, conjectures of higher rival price responsiveness lead to higher steady-state prices and profits. The reverse is true for strategic substitutes. We also find that learning about a rival's behavior proceeds more quickly, the less intensely related in demand are products. We find, in general, that equilibrium pricing patterns and profits can vary considerably from those in full-information environments, but that even with grossly wrong beliefs about rival behavior, competing retailers are still attracted to an equilibrium. The analysis suggests not only the value of investigating lessthan-full information situations but also the potential incremental value of signalling greater or less aggressiveness than truly characterizes one's behavior as a strategic option.     

Price dynamics, retail chains and inflation measurement

We use a large scanner price dataset to study grocery price dynamics. Previous analyses based on store scanner data emphasize differences in price dynamics across products. However, we also document large differences in price movements across different grocery store chains. A variance decomposition indicates that characteristics at the level of the chains (as opposed to individual stores) explain a large fraction of the total variation in price dynamics. Thus, retailer characteristics are found to be crucial determinants of heterogeneity in pricing dynamics, in addition to product characteristics. We empirically explore how the price dynamics we document affect price index measures.     

Group bargaining in supply chains

Review of Economic Design - We consider a vertical supply chain in which a monopoly retailer produces a good by assembling a number of essential components each of which is owned by a monopoly....     

Spatial competition under uniform delivered pricing

A Hotelling-type model of spatial competition is considered, in which two firms compete in uniform delivered prices. First, it is shown that there exists no uniform delivered price–location equilibrium when the product sold by the firms is perfectly homogeneous andwhen consumers buy from the firm quoting the lower delivered price. Second, when the product is heterogeneous and when preferences are identically, independently Weibull-distributed with standard deviation μ, we prove that there exists a single uniform delivered price–location equilibrium iff μ≧1/8 times the transportation rate times the size of the market. In equilibrium, firms are located at the center of the market and charge the same uniform delivered price, which equals their average transportation cost, plus a mark-up of 2μ. Finally, we discuss how our result extends to the case of n firms and proceed to a comparison of equilibria under uniform mill and delivered pricing.     

National pricing with local quality competition

We study the incentives of national retail chains to adopt national (uniform) prices across local markets that differ in size and competition intensity. In addition to price, the chains may also compete along a quality dimension, and quality is always set locally. We show that absent quality competition, the chains will never use national pricing. However, if quality competition is sufficiently strong there exist equilibria where at least one of the chains adopts national pricing. We also identify cases in which national pricing benefits (harms) all consumers, even in markets where such a pricing strategy leads to higher (lower) prices.     

Unleashing proactive low-carbon strategies through behavioral factors in biodiversity-intensive sustainable supply chains: Mixed methodology

The aim of this research is to understand the complex and relatively understudied relationship between human and behavioral factors and low-carbon management practices from the perspective of the resource-based view (RBV). Research application is in the “biodiversity sector” and consists of a survey and multiple-case study in Brazil, the richest country globally in terms of biodiversity but a country that also faces challenges in protecting biodiversity. The research problem considers the relationship between human critical success factors and the adoption of low-carbon management practices. Quantitative analysis through structural equation modeling shows the three branches of hypothesis to be accepted—the first with a higher coefficient than the second and the second with a higher coefficient than the third. It was observed that human factors influence low-carbon product management practices the most, followed by process practices and finally logistics practices. Qualitative multiple-case study research shows that companies are at different stages of maturity in relation to low-carbon management organizational practices, ranging from the highest stage to the lowest. It was found that the intensity of the presence of human critical success factors was higher where organizations had greater adoption of low-carbon management practices.     

Synthesis of strategies in post-COVID-19 public sector supply chains under an intuitionistic fuzzy environment

Entities in public sector supply chains (SCs) often operate independently despite having interdependent objectives. Such a fragmented operational design poses several problems magnified by the presence of necessary public health measures fueled by COVID-19. This work contributes to the domain literature by introducing an overarching framework for synthesizing strategies in public sector SCs. The underlying component is the translation of information from the upstream to the downstream entities of the SCs, which is carried out by a Kano-enhanced quality function deployment. The proposed framework introduces intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) decision maps with the aid of the full consistency method to incorporate inherent interrelationships among strategies in the translation agenda. Under an IF environment that better captures judgment uncertainties, an actual case study of a multi-level public sector SC motivated by a government-funded project under the COVID-19 pandemic is demonstrated in this work. Findings of the case suggest that the government prioritizes meeting all project objectives. This requirement is reflected in the downstream SC. The project planning entity focuses on creating an overarching plan of operations, material request entity on complying with government procurement protocols, and maintaining public health and safety in operations for the procurement entity. Results show the effective synthesis of strategies across the SC, ensuring SC integration and collaboration. The case study demonstrates that maintaining public health and safety is a significant component of post-COVID-19 public sector SCs. Several practical insights on the synthesis of public sector SC strategies are also provided in this work.     

Creating world-class supply chains

This article will share knowledge in two areas: The elements of world-class supply chains and the linking processes from customers' customers to suppliers' suppliers and the management approaches needed to engage the people and the organization in an effective implementation process to achieve world-class status.     

新世纪提高我国零售企业竞争力的基本思路

随着流通业地位的不断提高和作用的不断增强,流通业日益成为我国经济发展的先导产业和基础产业。零售业作为流通业当中的主体部分,其发展状况更是引人注目。近年来,随着国内市场国际竞争的不断加剧,如何提高我国零售企业的国际竞争力已经成为当前理论界研究的重大问题。从目前国内市场的竞争和世界零售业发展的趋势来看,我认为要提高我国零售企业的竞争力,至少应做到六大转变,狠抓两个基本点。     

Risk pricing of wholesale funds and the behavior of retail deposit rates

We explore the relationship between bank risk and retail deposits. Predicted risk premiums on wholesale funds explain retail rate heterogeneity through two channels. First, increased bank risk premiums encourage the bank to substitute from wholesale funds to small certificates of deposits (CD) by increasing small CD rates. Second, increased rival risk premiums in a local market require the bank to increase small CD rates even more. Our results are consistent with risk encouraging the use of small CDs as a marginal source of funds and promoting local market competition for small CDs. As risk premiums rise, banks also reduce rates on other retail deposits. Our approach has implications for regulatory and monetary policies and financial stability.     

Perspectives on risk management in supply chains

Managing risk in supply chains is an important topic in supply chain management. The topic's importance is due to several industry trends currently in place: increase in strategic outsourcing by firms, globalizations of markets, increasing reliance on suppliers for specialized capabilities and innovation, reliance on supply networks for competitive advantage, and emergence of information technologies that make it possible to control and coordinate extended supply chains. This article identifies some important aspects of risk management in supply chains and summarizes the four articles that are in this special issue. This emerging area of research interest deserves considerable attention and it is our hope that the articles in this special issue would spur additional research on this important topic.     

Assessing people-driven factors for circular economy practices in small and medium-sized enterprise supply chains: Business strategies and environmental perspectives

Globalisation and technological advancements have increased the pressure on small businesses to increase their productivity and to gain competitive advantages. That pressure has been placed on the resources available, resulting in increased environmental degradation as a result of the traditional linear model of make-use-dispose. Circular economy (CE) practices offer the opportunity for sustainable production based on the reuse-remanufacture and recycling of resources for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their sustainability, resulting in enhanced performance levels in terms of business strategies and environmental perspectives. But in academic literature, the role of people-driven factors (PDFs) in the adoption of CE practices in the supply chains (SCs) of SMEs is limited. Therefore, to fill this literature gap, this research looks at analysing PDFs for the implementation of CE in the SMEs in developing countries in two phases. PDFs are identified from an extensive literature review; a DEMATEL technique is then employed to understand the significant influence of each factor in the adoption of CE practices in SCs by dividing them into cause–effect groups. The findings show that PDFs such as training and knowledge sharing, employee participation, leadership and management plus strategic alignment are considered to be the most important significant factors in the adoption. The findings of this study will help industrial managers to understand the significance of the role of PDFs for enhancing business strategies; these findings can reduce the negative environmental impact in the adoption of CE practices in the SCs of SMEs.