Optimizing warranty policies for remanufactured products: When should they be longer, shorter, or identical to new product warranties?

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of a two-dimensional warranty policy for secondhand equipment, incorporating prior age and usage, condition-based preventive maintenance (PM) and upgrade activities, on minimizing the total expected cost (TEC) incurred by dealers under warranty coverage. The research addresses the critical challenge of ensuring reliability and cost-effectiveness for secondhand equipment dealers, while fostering trust in reliability improved secondhand products. Design/methodology/approach Based on a quantitative modelling approach, this work develops a reliability-based framework that integrates sequential condition-based maintenance (CBM) policy governed by a reliability threshold, with efficiency levels and upgrade intensity as decision variables. PM actions are modeled with dynamic age-reduction effects, while upgrade actions enhance the equipment’s reliability prior to market reintroduction. The model is validated through numerical experiments and sensitivity analyses to explore the influence of key parameters on warranty servicing costs and reliability. Findings The results reveal that the TECs associated with warranty coverage are highly sensitive to the equipment’s effective age, usage history and reliability thresholds, emphasizing the necessity for high-efficiency PM and targeted upgrade strategies. The findings highlight that higher upgrade levels are more cost-effective for older equipment, while optimal PM scheduling minimizes degradation and warranty costs. These insights underscore the importance of aligning warranty constraints with cost-reliability tradeoffs in designing effective warranty policies. Research limitations/implications This study assumes a fixed warranty coverage policy and a known degradation process, focusing on the dealer’s perspective in warranty servicing. Future research could explore dynamic warranty policies that adjust based on product condition and market demand, as well as incorporate customer behavior and preferences to provide a more comprehensive understanding of warranty optimization strategies. Practical implications The proposed framework helps secondhand equipment dealers optimize maintenance and warranty decisions by balancing upgrade intensity and PM strategies. By integrating a reliability-driven approach, dealers can minimize warranty servicing costs while improving equipment performance and customer satisfaction. The findings offer valuable decision-support tools for designing cost-effective and competitive warranty policies in the secondhand equipment market. Social implications This study contributes to the circular economy by encouraging the refurbishment and extended use of secondhand equipment, reducing waste and promoting sustainability. By improving the reliability of pre-owned products, the proposed warranty framework enhances consumer trust in the secondhand market, ultimately increasing the adoption of sustainable consumption practices. Originality/value This research introduces an innovative two-dimensional warranty framework for secondhand equipment, integrating past life considerations, a reliability improvement program and a CBM policy. The proposed framework strategically balances maintenance efficiency and upgrade intensity, providing dealers with actionable insights to design optimal warranty policies, reduce TECs and enhance customer confidence in refurbished equipment.

This study examines the context of the small and medium business (SME) environments for enterprising conditions in Sylhet following COVID-19. This article aims to highlight the most common legal hurdles small enterprises face during business management. 52 proper samples were randomly selected from the SMEs; these are common in the area. It has been utilizing various blended approaches which include qualitative and quantitative ones. Some of these business categories include retail, pharmacy, restaurant, mobile repair shops, and fast food. The research used both the structured and unstructured, a critical appraisal based on prior research on organizational learning. This paper emphasizes the importance of SMEs in the economic progress of the Sylhet region. However, with all these possibilities, there are numerous problems that an SME is faced with. Among them are limited access to finance, sourcing requirement of inputs, high operating costs, unfavorable market conditions, and impacts from shifting politically unstable environment. Keywords: Entrepreneurial Environment; Sylhet-Based SMEs; Economic Growth; Funding Challenges

Unfavorable Market Conditions, Institutional and Financial Development, and Exits of Foreign Subsidiaries

This study examines how market conditions in host countries affect the entry and exit decisions of multinational corporations’ foreign subsidiaries. Taking the real options perspective, we expect that smaller investments are associated with more flexible entry and exit. We also predict that better established host countries’ institutional and financial development facilitate easier exits for foreign subsidiaries under unfavorable market conditions. We find from a Cox proportional hazard rate model on STATA 10 that when market conditions become more unfavorable that smaller investment smaller investments endogenously chosen during the initial stage of internationalization lead to earlier exits than larger investments. We also find that strong institutional and financial development positively moderates small-sized subsidiaries’ earlier exits under negatively-resolved uncertainty conditions.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been the target of supportive government policies since economic transformation began in Hungary although the birth of a strong and healthy layer of SMEs has not been observed in the country up to now. In this article the issue of why this has not happened is addressed. Empirical evidence suggested that Hungarian SMEs are not usually driven by the corporate values of Max Weber’s “protestant ethics”; instead, they aim at short-term financial enrichment. Hungarian SMEs cannot usually “climb the ladder” and turn into large enterprises – indeed, their survival period is relatively short. Nickell (1996) argued that (total factor) productivity rather than profitability would reflect a company’s efficiency level. Using frontier production and frontier profit functions there is an attempt here to prove that “technical (or allocative) efficiency” and “profit efficiency” both have a distinct role to play in explaining a firm’s economic performance; and by applying limited information maximum likelihood models of SME profit gaps it will be shown that cost inefficiencies and unfavourable market conditions — alongside the inefficient allocation of factors of production — inevitably lead to the fairly low level of SME profitability. The most important finding of the analysis is that employment has been a crucial factor in explaining the profit deviation of companies. Building on the results of Köllő (2001) the article argues that SMEs regard labour as flexible stock. Companies will seek out new labour if they find new market opportunities — but until these appear, they tend to remain in the arena of diminishing returns, this being the easiest way for them to maximise profits. Downgraded production activities do not attract substantial external financing. Yet a lack of financial resources when new market opportunities do emerge will prevent an SME from exploiting the chance.

PurposeHow to get people working longer and retiring later is a new research topic for contemporary social policy. Flexible work options could be one possibility, but are special shorter‐working‐hours‐for‐elderly workplaces really important in order to increase employment among the 65+ age group? The purpose of this paper is to argue, in the case of Japan, that increased availability of non‐standard work formats would not improve labour force participation among the elderly when it is driven by corporate objectives to reduce labour costs. On the contrary, supply‐driven increase in flexible work formats sends a signal of unfavourable labour market conditions and causes the elderly to stay out of labour.Design/methodology/approachThe paper utilizes the Labour Force Survey, a nationally representative data set showing labour force participation and employment formats across all age groups.FindingsIt is true that non‐standard work formats are being progressively more used among elderly workers. However labour force participation rate has increased only in cases where the increase in flexible work formats was demand driven, meaning only to the point where both standard and non‐standard work options were equally available to the whole population. When economic conditions force companies to offer more non‐standard work options, increase in supply side takes place. This sends a signal of unfavourable labour market conditions to the elderly population, who are more elastic to labour market changes and by using a pension can easily withdraw from the workforce.Research limitations/implicationsThis analysis suggests that policy objectives to create flexible‐elderly work formats in order to increase the employment rate and reduce costs for the retirement system will not bring expected the results.Practical implicationsAlthough policy objective is to increase the employment rate among the elderly, focusing only on elderly will provide moderate results. Elderly population would come along, but only with the working age population. The first point of reform should be placed on the overall labour market, by diminishing major differences between standard and non‐standard work formats. One way could be the act of applying social security and company benefits to non‐standard work formats. Or opposite to that, the act of diminishing social security and company benefits to standard work formats.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by broadening understanding of elderly population behaviour in the labour market. With the increasing number of elderly people, retirement systems are looking for methods to postpone full‐retirement. Through analysis, the paper seeks to understand if and when flexible employment formats among the elderly are demand or supply driven.

How to Adapt to Changing Markets: Experience and Personality in a Repeated Investment Game

The success of a new product depends on both engineering decisions (product reliability) and marketing decisions (price, warranty). A higher reliability results in a higher manufacturing cost and higher sale price. Consumers are willing to pay a higher price only if they can be assured about product reliability. Product warranty is one such tool to signal reliability with a longer warranty period indicating better reliability. Better warranty terms result in increased sales and also higher expected warranty servicing costs. Warranty costs are reduced by improvements in product reliability. Learning effects result in the unit manufacturing cost decreasing with total sales volume and this in turn impacts on the sale price. As such, reliability, price and warranty decisions need to be considered jointly. The paper develops a model to determine the optimal product reliability, price and warranty strategy that achieve the biggest total integrated profit for a general repairable product sold under a free replacement-repair warranty strategy in a market and looks at two scenarios for the pricing and warranty of the product. The model assumes that the sale rate increases as the warranty period increases and decreases as the price increases. The maximum principle method is used to obtain optimal solutions for dynamic price and warranty situations. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the proposed model.

For a two-period closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer, Stackelberg game analyses are conducted to examine pricing and warranty decisions under two warranty models depending on who offers warranty for new and remanufactured products and the corresponding benchmark models with a warranty for new products only. Next, we identify the conditions under which warranty for remanufactured products is offered and investigate how this warranty affects the CLSC operations. Subsequently, comparative studies are carried out to examine equilibrium decisions, profitability and consumer surplus of the CLSC between the two warranty models. Analytical results show that offering warranty for remanufactured products does not affect new product pricing in period 2, but influences the pricing of new products in period 1 and remanufactured products in period 2, thereby enhancing remanufacturing, individual and channel profitability, and consumer surplus. Compared to the retailer warranty for remanufactured products, the manufacturer warranty can attain a more equitable profit distribution. If the warranty cost advantage of the manufacturer (retailer) is significant relative to that of the retailer (the manufacturer), the manufacturer (retailer) arises as a natural choice to offer warranty for remanufactured products as this decision enhances both profitability and consumer surplus.

Pricing and warranty decisions in a dual-channel supply chain with warranty's quality signal

This study investigates the role of Green Human Resource Management (HRM) attention in fostering corporate sustainability. By using a quantile regression (QR) model, I explore Green HRM both as an aggregate measure and across three levels such as operational, managerial, and strategic to provide nuanced insights into how these practices influence sustainability under varying market conditions. The findings reveal that Green HRM attention enhances sustainability at higher quantiles (0.75 to 0.95), underscoring its effectiveness during bullish market phases. Notably, operational-level Green HRM has a significant impact at lower quantiles (0.2), reflecting its relevance during unfavorable market conditions. Managerial-level practices drive sustainability at the 0.95 quantile, while strategic-level efforts show no statistically significant impact across quantiles. These results highlight the importance of tailoring Green HRM strategies to specific market contexts. This study contributes to the literature by offering a quantile-based perspective on Green HRM practices and demonstrating how targeted HR efforts can improve sustainability performance under different market dynamics. Practical implications include the need for adaptive Green HRM strategies and resource allocation to align with shifting market conditions for long-term corporate sustainability.

We use our survey of finance professors from universities across the USA to investigate whether men and women react differently to prior gains and losses. We find that after incurring a loss, a large fraction of men continue to invest in stocks, but a majority of women tend to avoid investing in stocks. Even though prior losses increase the expectation of unfavorable market conditions, we find that women are more likely than men to expect unfavorable market conditions irrespective of whether they have made a gain or a loss in their prior stock market investments.

A large Markovian linear program to optimize replacement policies and dairy herd net income for diets and nitrogen excretion

In recent years, the original design manufacturer (ODM) has increasing interests in multichannel cooperation with different retailers. This paper considers the problem in which the ODM cooperates with two competing retailers. The manufacturer produces two substitute products and markets them through two competing retailers. For both products, the manufacturer bundles them with basic warranties and the retailers brand them with their own branding. We quantitatively model the product demands and derive the optimal decisions under two common supply chain power structures: manufacturer Stackelberg and retailer Stackelberg. We observe that when the competition between the two retailers becomes fiercer, the manufacturer charges more for both products, the product substitutability and supply chain power structures do not affect the products' price and warranty decisions, and there does exist a brand ratio interval in which the product branded by the high‐reputation retailer will not get a better warranty from the manufacturer, violating the signalization of the warranty. The leader gets the power to get higher profit while the total profit of the whole supply chain remains the same under both power structures.

This research was conducted to determined the role of gold and Indonesian government bonds as safe havens in Indonesia for 2018 – 2020. The tests in this study used the quantile regression method based on the results of the correlation between gold returns and government bond returns with returns stocks with index LQ45. The two instruments in this study will be tested in unfavorable market conditions or a bear market. . The data used in this study uses monthly data for the period 2018 to 2020. The results of this study indicate that gold acts as a safe haven in 2019. Meanwhile, government bonds do not act as a safe haven during the 2018 – 2020.