Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2013, 61(7), 2285-2294 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201361072285

Reverse logistics policy - differences between conservative and innovative reverse logistics management

Alena Klapalová
Department of Corporate Economy, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Lipová 41a, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic

One of the of the key barriers that hampers effective and efficient management of reverse flows detected within a number of empirical surveys and case studies focused on reverse logistics and/or return management is business (organisational) policy, specifically lack of policy, deficiency in existing policy or inferior policy. Despite this fact, there is a gap in literature which would show some evidence from practice that innovative reverse logistics policy both can pay off and is associated with certain aspects of reverse logistics management. Such proof can have several implications. It can support the call for better understanding and more research of the linkages of reverse logistics with other corporate functions, promote the acceptation of strategic character of reverse logistics and stress the role of RL policy within the rest of overall corporate management.
The aim of this paper is to contribute and to enrich the existing body of knowledge concerning the above-mentioned gap through presentation of survey results that was realized in 2012 among managers of 244 Czech firms. The results demonstrate the statistically significant association between the innovativeness of RL policy and profitability of firms, quality of RL planning, perception of RL importance, level of RL knowledge and perception of product innovation importance for firms' competitiveness and frequency of product innovation. They also reveal statistically significant differences between firms with conservative and innovative RL policy and the perceived existence of some barriers to manage RL.

Keywords: reverse logistics, reverse flows, policy, performance outcomes, performance measurement, planning, product innovation, knowledge of reverse logistics, barriers
Grants and funding:

This paper could be prepared thanks to the existence of the Specific Research Project Výzkum vybraných aspektů řízení zpětných toků (MUNI/A/0762/2012) funded by Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.

Received: August 21, 2013; Published: December 24, 2013  Show citation

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Klapalová, A. (2013). Reverse logistics policy - differences between conservative and innovative reverse logistics management. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 61(7), 2285-2294. doi: 10.11118/actaun201361072285
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