Return Service Research Articles

The Influence of Online Return Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction Among Chinese Consumers: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Platform Reputation

The Influence of Online Return Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction Among Chinese Consumers: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Platform Reputation

Agency or reselling: optimal return policy in E-commerce retail systems under cap-and-trade regulation

In recent years, the government has issued regulations on environmental protection, carbon emissions, and trading. Enterprises’ environmental awareness has increased, and the operational strategies of manufacturers and platforms have also been affected by environmental regulations. This study considers the interactive effects of agency and reselling contracts between manufacturers and platforms and the cap-and-trade regulation on return policy. Our findings reveal that government-imposed caps on total carbon emissions consistently influence optimal pricing and profits under cap-and-trade regulation, regardless of the presence of a return policy. Additionally, the emission intensity of manufacturers plays a pivotal role in determining the return policy. High manufacturer emission intensity leads decision-makers to provide return services only under specific conditions. Moreover, manufacturers opt for agency contracts when faced with low commission rates, and this threshold is intricately linked to carbon emission intensity, the cap, and the return rate. The government’s ability to adjust the cap enables control over changes in manufacturers’ profits and output, thereby influencing industrial structure and carbon emissions. Manufacturers strategically choose return policies, considering factors such as carbon intensity, return rate, and commission rate. Remarkably, even under cap-and-trade regulations, manufacturers remain inclined to offer returns under optimal conditions.

Can they or won't they?

Almost all experts agree that the German healthcare system has reached its limits and needs to be comprehensively overhauled. Although insured persons and taxpayers spend a great deal of money on healthcare, they do not always receive top-quality services in return. This is despite the fact that highly competent service providers are active in the healthcare system and efficient facilities and structures are available in many areas. On the other hand, there are brakes on performance that create dysfunctionalities in various areas, sometimes with serious consequences: insufficient ability to compromise between federal and state policy, dysfunctional sectoralisation, discrepancies between supply and demand, competition between quality and economy and, on top of all this, the inadequate participation of patients/insured persons - after all, they finance the healthcare system! This article goes beyond the description of the current situation and attempts to analyse why Germany has not succeeded in translating the very good substantive and structural conditions into a modern, efficient and adaptive healthcare system.

Customer satisfaction of online purchases and repurchase intentions: the moderating role of return services

ABSTRACT Online retailers continuously search for strategies that could increase repeat purchases in a highly competitive and low exit barrier industry. This study examined the effect of customer satisfaction on online repurchase intentions. This study examined the relationship between return services and customers’ perceived uncertainties and reduced uncertainties effect on online repurchase intentions. This study adopts a quantitative approach. An online survey was conducted involving 605 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationship between satisfactions and online repurchase intentions. The results show that customer satisfaction has positive influence on online repurchase intentions. The results revealed that return services have positive impact on customer perceived uncertainty and reduced uncertainty has positive influence on repurchase intention. The results also revealed that the three constructs of return services (refund, exchange and repairs) moderate the relationship between customer satisfaction and online repurchase intentions. This study suggests online retailers that in their effort to satisfy customers emphasis should be placed on return services. This study’s focus on satisfaction, return services and customer perceived uncertainty of online purchases provides new dimension to literature on the role of return services (financial refund, product exchange and repairs) on customer satisfaction and repurchase intention.

Advance Selling Strategy with Return Service: The Impacts of Information Disclosure and Disclosure Methods

The return cost burdens both consumers and merchants, leading merchants to emphasize information disclosure during pre-sales of new products. This study analyzes the effects of information disclosure methods on consumer valuation and merchants’ pre-sale strategies across four scenarios: no advance selling, no information disclosure, traditional information disclosure, and blockchain-enabled information disclosure. We examine optimal pricing and inventory strategies under each scenario, assessing the value of information disclosure and the merchant’s optimal advance selling strategy. We find that traditional information disclosure could lead to various pre-sale pricing outcomes based on consumer valuation distribution bounds, trust levels, and merchant return losses. Blockchain-based disclosure influences merchants to implement premium pricing, which may render blockchain unnecessary. Offering pre-orders is beneficial with any information disclosure method. If consumers have varied product understandings, merchants benefit more from using an information disclosure strategy rather than just offering returns; otherwise, the reverse is true. The paper provides theoretical insights into optimal pre-sale information disclosure practices.

Donor Limb Functional Restoration via a Novel Clinical Care Pathway following Fibula Free Flap Harvest for Head and Neck Reconstruction.

Patients undergoing head and neck skeletal reconstruction (HNR) often require free tissue transfer from the extremities to ensure proper restoration of form and function. This requires a team-based, highly reliable medical system centered around the patient needs. Surgical intervention across multiple sites and harvesting of donor tissue results in short- and long-term physical impairments. There is a paucity of research objectively measuring impairments resulting from the graft donor site. There is a lack of research that objectively measures impairments and protocols for the management of these patients postoperatively. Patients undergo little, if any, formal approach to dealing with the vast impairments, which are sequelae to this surgery. This leads to large discrepancies in proposed functional progressions, return to duty timelines, and utilization of rehabilitative resources. At a major military medical center, an innovative clinical care pathway for patients undergoing HNR using free tissue transfer was implemented using a multidisciplinary model that focuses on early engagement with rehabilitation. This model, paired with a single surgery, will attempt to return service members to duty months earlier than the traditional approach. This report describes the conceptual framework and implementation of a new criteria-based, multidisciplinary clinical care pathway for HNR patients. The collaboration amongst the multidisciplinary care team has optimized the holistic health of the patient and communication with their support network, yielding faster return to normalization of daily life activities. The long-term goal is to further develop and formalize this pathway to best serve this patient population.

Enhancing Local Retribution as a Key Source of Local Revenue

Retribution serves as a pivotal source of revenue for the State, distinguishing itself from taxes through the provision of a direct reciprocal value to the payer. In essence, individuals or entities paying retribution receive a tangible benefit or service in return, a concept fundamentally different from the general revenue-generating nature of taxes. This study adopts a descriptive qualitative approach to explore the dynamics of retribution and its impact on the revenue generation of Gorontalo City. Utilizing financial data specific to this locale, the research zeroes in on the local government of Gorontalo City as its primary sample, employing documentation methods to collect and analyze data. The analysis process encompasses verification, categorization, in-depth analysis, and meticulous organization of data to identify strategic issues and opportunities. The study further integrates SWOT analysis as a strategic tool to outline the current landscape and pinpoint areas for improvement. A key recommendation emerging from this research is the imperative for relevant local government units, specifically the Regional Work Unit (RWU), to enhance the management, supervision, and provision of guidance related to local retribution payments. By doing so, Gorontalo City can significantly improve the efficiency of its retribution collection processes, thereby fostering sustainable growth in local revenue streams. This comprehensive approach not only aims at optimizing current operations but also at securing long-term financial stability for the region through improved retribution management practices.

Do E-Tailers Benefit From Cooperative- Return-to-Store?

The popularity of online shopping places higher demands for e-tailers’ service, especially the return process. Cooperative-return-to-store (CRS), where an e-tailer's merchandise can be returned to another retailer's stores, seems to provide a panacea for e-tailers to improve return flexibility and save on return handling costs. However, current practices indicate that only a limited number of e-tailers offer an in-store return option through CRS. This article elucidates the intuition behind this phenomenon by analyzing two asymmetric competing e-tailers’ decisions on whether to participate in CRS with a third-party offline retailer who establishes a drop-off convenience level. Perhaps counterintuitively, we find that CRS's return service improvement and cost reduction for e-tailers can deter them from participating in the cooperation under certain conditions. Our analysis also demonstrates that the offline retailer could improve performance by strategically adjusting the CRS program's main appeal (e.g., return service improvement or cost reduction) to the e-tailers based on their product differentiation.

Post-Purchase Experience in Online Shopping and Their Impact on Customer Satisfaction at Blibli.Com

This study aims to determine the effect of Post-Purchase Experience on Customer Satisfaction and Future Purchase Intention on the use of the Blibli.com application in Surabaya. This research method uses an online survey of 200 respondents in Surabaya who have used the Blibli.com application, especially those who have used the return facility. The collected data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) measurement model assisted by using SPSS Version 24.0 and AMOS Version 23.0 applications. The results of this study found that several variables in the Post-Purchase Experience, namely the Shipping Service and Tracking Service variables were not supported on Customer Satisfaction on the use of the Blibli.com application in Surabaya. Other variables, namely Return service and Customer Service have an effect on Customer Satisfaction, and Customer Satisfaction has an effect on Future Purchase Intention.

Research on E-Commerce Platforms’ Return Policies Considering Consumers Abusing Return Policies

Currently, major e-commerce platforms are competing to improve their return services, while merchants are suffering from consumers abusing return policies. We developed a dual oligopoly model consisting of two e-commerce platforms, one offering a lenient return policy and the other enforcing a stringent one, to investigate the effectiveness of lenient return policies in the presence of opportunistic consumers. We examine the impact of the proportion of opportunistic consumers, cross-network effects, gains from dishonest returns, and penalties on the scale of users and profits for both platforms. The findings indicate that: (1) As the proportion of opportunistic consumers increases, multi-homing merchants tend to be single-homing on a platform with a stringent return policy. This reduces the number of consumers on a platform with a lenient return policy and lowers the platform’s profit. Moreover, increased gains from dishonest returns worsen the situation. (2) Network effects on merchants from the consumer side significantly affect the effectiveness of lenient return policies. (3) Enforcement of penalties for dishonest returns could prevent an exodus of consumers and merchants from platforms that offer lenient return policies. However, it does not raise profits. In other words, its impact on the success of lenient return policies is limited.

Research on the Relationship between Second-hand Market and Consumers

In the era of consumption upgrading, people are faced with abundant materials, also produced by over consumption of idle goods. With the increasing scale of second-hand goods circulation places, second-hand market ushered in the new problems and opportunities. While using low price as a gimmick to attract users, it exposes various problems, such as poor after-sales service, false promotion and poor product quality. At present, the main problem in the development of second-hand markets is that users do not trust websites. How to take effective measures to strengthen consumers' trust in second-hand markets is an urgent problem to be solved at present. The trust relationship between seller and consumers is a problem for further study. With the remarkable growth of the network and the rapid development of social e-commerce, strengthening trust has become increasingly important, and the trust relationship has become increasingly fragile under the influence of multiple factors. Second-hand markets might be beneficial to attach importance to customer complaints, correctly handle disputes, ensure the security of transaction payment, optimize return and exchange services, and protect customer privacy. It can optimize group bargaining mode, make significant strides in the interaction, sharing and exchange between consumers and friends with amusing consumption experience.

The Politics of Taxation and Tax Reform in Times of Crisis: Covid-19 and Attitudes towards Taxation in Sierra Leone

The pandemic has had significant fiscal implications around the world. A key question facing governments is how the pandemic has shaped taxpayer attitudes and what that means for the prospects for tax reform and new revenue raising. We aim to understand the impacts of the pandemic on attitudes toward taxation in Sierra Leone with novel survey data, collected before the pandemic, shortly after the pandemic’s onset, and for almost a year afterwards. Four key findings emerge. First, immediately after the crisis onset we see increased support for taxation in Freetown, despite escalating economic challenges. Second, at the same time that taxpayers show greater general support for taxation they become more likely to believe that one could refuse to pay taxes if government fails to deliver services in return. Third, while we lack baseline data on support for progressive taxation, we find rising and sustained support for it over the course of the pandemic. Finally, although we see an initial increase in willingness to pay more taxes for services, that support erodes over time. These findings have significant implications for understanding both immediate responses to the pandemic, and the broader politics of taxation and tax reform.

The Use of Intelligent Racket to Objectively Measure Abilities of a table Tennis Player with an Intellectual Impairment: A Case Study

The purpose of this case study was to measure abilities of a table tennis (TT) player with an intellectual impairment (II). The intelligent racket was used to objectively evaluate powerful forehand smash swing and forehand topspin movements. A 27 year-old TT player who competed in the international II championships was tested in the classification room by two international TT classifiers. The testing results in the classification sections including service, return service and basic skills were 26, 24, and 30, respectively. His score in this TT-specific test for II was 80 points out of 108 points. In addition, the average efficiency of forehand smash and topspin movements were 0.12 ± 0.02 and 0.03 ± 0.01. The decay of 27 swings in forehand smash and topspin was 19.29% and 10.25%, respectively. Offering the objective and extensive data may provide the useful evidence to confirm the abilities of this TT player with II. This case study clearly demonstrated that combination of classification testing data and swing tests evaluated by the intelligent racket was the useful approach to evaluate the abilities of TT players with II. More data collection and analysis for players with II is recommended to ensure the dual tests in classification for II in the future.

Optimizing Healthcare Delivery: Analyzing the Relationship Between Inpatient Medical Record Return Time and Service Effectiveness at Ciremai Hospital

The medical record installation must maintain medical records correctly and appropriately, including the return of medical records. According to the Ministry of Health (2006), the standard for returning inpatient medical records is ≤ 2x24 hours after completion of treatment. Meanwhile, the standard of service effectiveness in the form of time for providing outpatient medical records according to Kepmenkes number 129 of 2008 is ≤ 10 minutes. The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between inpatient medical record return time and service effectiveness. The research method used is quantitative with a cross-sectional design. The population is 220 medical records of post-inpatient patients who are controlled outpatients at Ciremai Hospital during January 2022. The total sample is 145 using the Slovin formula with the purposive sampling technique. Univariate analysis using frequency distribution and bivariate analysis using the Spearman rank correlation test are used because the data is not normally distributed. The results show that the average time to return inpatient medical records is 115,86 hours, the fastest time is 24 hours, and the longest time is 360 hours. The average service effectiveness in the form of outpatient medical record provision was 222,26 minutes; the fastest time was 3 minutes; and the longest time was 710 minutes. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient is 0,418 with a p-value of 0,000 ≤ 0,05. The conclusion is that there is a relationship with moderate correlation strength between inpatient medical record return time and service effectiveness, with a value of 0,418.

Surgical Treatment ofFocal Chondral Lesions ofthe Knee inthe Military Population: Current andFuture Therapies.

Chondral and osteochondral defects of the knee are common injuries in the military population that have a significant impact on readiness. Definitive treatment of these injuries is challenging since cartilage has a limited capacity for self-repair and regeneration. Management is particularly challenging in military patients who maintain a higher level of activity similar to athletes. Existing surgical techniques have variable results and often long recovery times, sparking the development of several new innovative technologies to return service members back to duty more quickly and effectively after cartilage injury. The purpose of this article is to review the current and future surgical treatments for chondral and osteochondral knee lesions and their relevance in managing these injuries in the military. In this review article, we describe the current treatments for chondral and osteochondral defects of the knee, reporting on outcomes in military populations. We explore emerging treatment modalities for cartilage defects, reporting innovations, stage of research, and current data. Published results of each treatment option in military populations are reviewed throughout the article. This review includes 12 treatments for chondral lesions. Of these therapies, four are considered synthetic and the remaining are considered regenerative solutions. Regenerative therapies tend to perform better in younger, healthier populations with robust healing capacity. Success of treatment depends on lesions and patient characteristics. Nearly all modalities currently available in the USA were successful in improving patients from presurgical function in the short (<6 months) term, but the long-term efficacy is still challenged. Upcoming technologies show promising results in clinical and animal studies that may provide alternative options desirable for the military population. The current treatment options for cartilage lesions are not entirely satisfactory, usually with long recovery times and mixed results. An ideal therapy would be a single procedure that possesses the ability to enable a quick return to activity and duty, alleviate pain, provide long-term durability, and disrupt the progression of osteoarthritis. Evolving technologies for cartilage lesions are expanding beyond currently available techniques that may revolutionize the future of cartilage repair.

Sustainable last mile parcel delivery and return service using drones

Improving last mile delivery, in terms of both efficiency and sustainability, has recently been enhanced using truck/drone tandems. However, nearly all these approaches focus only on deliveries, while returns are ignored. We propose a new model for integrating both delivery and returns in the combined operation of a truck and a drone, which we term the Flying Sidekick Traveling Salesman Problem integrating Deliveries and Returns with Multiple Payloads (FSTSP-DR-MP). This approach is more sustainable than truck-only deliveries as the drones operate through battery power with no emissions and can move more directly than vehicles along a road network. We formulate the problem as a mixed-integer linear program to minimize the total service time of the system, where the truck and the drone can perform both delivery and pickup of parcels during a single sortie. Because drones have a capacity of multiple parcels, each can visit more than one customer per dispatch, increasing drone utilization and responsiveness to customer expectations regarding return services, along with greater environmental improvements. Small-size cases are solved exactly using the MILP implemented in the CPLEX Python API. Since the MILP is not practical for realistically sized cases, we propose a meta-heuristic derived from Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS), which iteratively builds truck and drone routes. We show that this works well for up to 100 customers, a typical number in last-mile logistics. We assess the trade-offs between the ratio of returns to deliveries and drone capacity to provide managerial insights to the benefits of this approach for sustainable last mile logistics. Computational experiments show that integrating delivery and return truck-drone operations significantly reduces total service time and truck travel time compared to both traditional delivery schemes (single truck) and the well-known FSTSP drone schemes (one truck and one drone) up to 36.2% and 22.9%, respectively, by exploiting the nature of each customer (delivery or return) to increase the number of stops of each drone sortie. We also conduct a comparison with multiple drones have a single payload under similar scenarios. The results demonstrate that our model outperforms this alternative with an average improvement of 3.9% in total service time. Our approach addresses an important gap in the literature by accommodating returns, which are ubiquitous in last mile logistics, as well as providing for improved drone utilization, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness.

The influence of return channel type on the relationship between return service quality and customer loyalty in omnichannel retailing

PurposeThis study investigates the impacts of return channel type on the relationships between return service quality (RSQ) and customer loyalty (CL) in an omnichannel retailing environment.Design/methodology/approachData comes from Chinese customers having a return experience in omnichannel retailing that uses the channel type of both buy-online-return-in-store (BORIS) and buy-in-store-return-to-online warehouses (BSROW). The authors use the structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses and the bootstrapping method to test the mediation and moderation effect.FindingsFor BORIS channel, satisfaction of customer returns (CRS) partially mediates the relationship between convenience and CL, and fully mediates that between CL and responsiveness, transparency and competence, respectively. For BSROW channel, CRS partially mediates the relationship between responsiveness and CL, and fully mediates that between CL and convenience, transparency and competence, respectively. The mediation effects indicate that omnichannel customers may feel more satisfied due to higher omnichannel fulfillment (responsiveness and convenience) and omnichannel trust (transparency and competence) provided by retailers. Return channel type moderates the relationship between RSQ-convenience and CL. The results show the different expectations between BORIS and BSROW customers in the return process.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper serves as a pioneering study to apply cognition-affect-behavior paradigm into the field of return management in omnichannel retailing.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest retailers develop their strategies on customer returns and post-sales service quality improvement in the omnichannel. Also, retailers should develop an integrated return system across channels to provide convenient service to BORIS customers and quick response to BSROW customers.Originality/valueStudying return service management in the omnichannel from customer's cognition appraisal, this study contributes to the literature of the reverse service management by bringing in the effect of omnichannel type to explore the relationship between RSQ and CL.

Comprehensive Return Policy, A Development Direction for Return Services

Online shopping requires online consumers to make purchase decisions without actually experiencing the product, thus leading to a large number of return issues that have a negative impact on both consumers and online merchants. For the sake of the healthy development of the e-commerce industry, online merchants and e-commerce platforms are constantly implementing new, more consumer-friendly return policies to attract consumers and increase their willingness to buy. Integrated returns are a way for consumers to return goods by simply applying for a return in the background of the website, and the e-commerce platform will arrange for a courier to pick up the goods on its own initiative. Obviously what kind of impact the integrated return service will have on consumers is a direction worth studying.

Strategies and practices to reduce the ecological impact of product returns: An environmental sustainability framework for multichannel retail

AbstractProduct returns in retail are inherently wasteful and have considerable negative environmental impacts. Besides the monetary costs, they lead to increased transportation, packaging and processing, and the returned items are often discarded. We present strategies and practices retailers can adopt to manage their product returns in a way that reduces environmental impacts. With eCommerce flourishing, product returns have increased significantly. Whilst highest for online sales, they are a challenge across all channels. The importance of developing sustainability management in operations and supply chains is evident from the growing body of literature, but there is a gap regarding the management of product returns in a more environmentally sustainable manner. To address this gap, we interviewed multichannel retailers, retail experts and return service providers operating in the UK and North America. The findings reveal that although retailers have started paying attention to the financial impact of returns, there is little awareness of the scale of environmental impacts. In addition, retailers lack a comprehensive approach to addressing the environmental impact of product returns. Based on our findings, we (1) unpack the barriers inhibiting retailers from developing environmental sustainability plans in returns management, (2) present a set of strategies for retailers to reduce the environmental impact of returns and (3) develop a framework for environmental sustainability in returns management. Our findings and proposed framework have implications for research and practice on addressing the environmental impact of product returns.

Determinants of Smallholder Farmers’ Income-Generating Activities in Rubber Monoculture Dominated Region Based on Sustainable Livelihood Framework

The rapid expansion of rubber plantations in Xishuangbanna, China, has severely decreased rubber prices in the last several years. The income loss and other adverse environmental impacts have brought livelihood challenges and opportunities to develop and adopt more diversified and environmental-friendly income-generating activities (IGAs). To better understand the constraints and opportunities for smallholder rubber farmers to sustain or improve their livelihoods, this study investigates which IGAs are applied by local farmers and the factors that determine their adoption, using the sustainable livelihood framework as the theoretical guideline. The qualitative approach is applied using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. Five directions of changes in IGAs (i.e., intercropping, other cash crops, livestock raising for marketing, part-time job, and land renting) are identified, and local farmers are categorized into three groups (i.e., rejective, affirmative, and hesitate groups) based on their attitudes towards these IGAs. The results reveal that the main adoption motivations of certain IGAs are closely related to price shock, economic return, information, and extension service. Based on the results, suggestions are provided to enhance farmers’ motivation to make changes and improve the adoption of emerging IGAs with attention given to vulnerability contexts, livelihood assets and institutional assistance.