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Abstract
Purpose - To delineate typologies that capture the relationship between closed-loop supply chains and value-added business models, and thereby to suggest a research agenda for the transition to sustainable business.
Design/methodology/approach - Develops four new theoretical categories or typologies of closed-loop systems and applies them to the context of the automotive industry. Conceptual, rather than empirical.
Findings - That hybrid closed-loop systems can be combined with innovative non-linear value configurations to enable the transition to more sustainable production and consumption.
Research limitations/implications - Identifies research agenda to explore how novel business models can integrate with various closed-loop systems. Theoretical, but grounded in research into the automotive industry.
Practical implications - That closed-loop systems are best implemented outside traditional linear value added structures.
Originality/value - Places closed-loop systems at the heart of the (redesigned) business model rather than as an accessory that must be adapted to the demands of existing approaches. Suggests scholars should be part of this innovative process, not merely observers.
Keywords Supply chain management, Manufacturing systems, Management strategy
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Closed-loop supply chains, embodying remanufacturing and reverse logistics, might be expected to an important means to enable businesses to meet the growing demands of corporate social responsibility, and to meet wider social goals to reduce the resource-intensity of contemporary economic life (Hart, 1997; Desai and Riddlestone, 2002; Steinhilper, 1998; Environmental Protection Agency, 1997; Commission of the European Communities, 2000). There is a clear resonance with the concepts of eco-efficiency (Schmidheiny, 1992) and eco-modernism (Ayres et al, 1997): that closed loops offer opportunities to achieve the so-called "triple bottom line" of social, business and environmental benefits (Hawken et al., 1999). Waste streams - including mechanical products that can be made serviceable again - can provide useful valueadded business opportunities (Ferrer and Whybark, 2000).
This paper, drawing on the specific context of the automotive industry (defined to mean car production, sale and post-sale service), argues that closed loops acquire distinctive characteristics according to the nature of the product (or sub-product) concerned, the structure of the industry established to provide those products, and the consumption norms thereby created (Nieuwenhuis and Wells, 2003). The paper therefore presents a typology to capture the different forms of closed loop formats.
Closed loops: defining the...