Drivers of Reverse Logistics Activities: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

Nowadays, most of the companies are interested in the activities that support sustainable environment. Because, the rapid increase of the industrial activities and uncontrolled consumption of natural resources cause environmental problems. Here, the responsibility of the companies is to redesign their activities in order to prevent those problems. Besides, the companies encounter with the pressure both from government and consumers that they must reorganize operational activities such as raw material supply, distribution and production in an environmental friendly way. Based on this scope, reverse logistics and its drivers were explained in this research. Drivers of reverse logistics from the producers’ perspective were analyzed in house appliance industry in Turkey. The research was carried out in two firms which are among the largest companies in the house appliance industry. The results were obtained through a questionnaire from the top-level managers and engineers that work in the dishwasher, refrigerator and oven factories. To determine the factors affecting reverse logistics activities of house appliance producers, a hierarchical structure was composed from the literature review of the reverse logistics. The data was analyzed by analytical hierarchy process, a multi criteria decision making method. According to the results of the research, there are significant differences of the factors that affect producers’ reverse logistics activities between both firms.