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Reverse Logistics: Concept, Evolution and Marketing Challenges

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Optimization and Decision Support Systems for Supply Chains

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Logistics ((LNLO))

Abstract

Reverse logistics is a research area focused on the management of the recovery of products once they are no longer desired or can no longer be used by consumers, in order to obtain an economic return through reuse, remanufacturing or recycling. In recent years, reverse logistics has become a matter of strategic importance in the context of the Supply Chain Management. In this chapter, an introduction to the concept and evolution of reverse logistics is provided; from a very basic approach related to the recycling channels to the current concept of closed-loop supply chain. Then, we describe some of the challenges for reverse logistics in the next years, especially those related with the marketing of the recovered products, namely competition issues in remanufacturing, the cannibalization problem, the purchase intention of consumers of remanufactured products, and their perceptions and willingness to pay for this sort of products. Research in reverse logistics from a demand/market perspective is nascent and there exist challenging opportunities to keep developing this topic.

A previous and shortened version of this manuscript was published in the International Journal of Engineering Business and Management, an Open Access Journal (Rubio and Jiménez-Parra 2014).

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Junta de Extremadura and FEDER for the funding received through grant GR15007 and PRI09A098. In addition, S. Rubio acknowledges the financial support from Junta de Extremadura and FEDER through the grant MOV15B024, and from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and FEDER under the project DPI2015-67740-P (MINECO/FEDER).

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Rubio, S., Jiménez-Parra, B. (2017). Reverse Logistics: Concept, Evolution and Marketing Challenges. In: Póvoa, A., Corominas, A., de Miranda, J. (eds) Optimization and Decision Support Systems for Supply Chains. Lecture Notes in Logistics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42421-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42421-7_4

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