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1 Introduction
For a number of reasons, retail reverse logistics has emerged as a key management issue within the field of supply chain management. Reverse logistics is important as it has direct impact on the bottom line ([76] Stock, 1998; [46] Mason, 2002). Estimates of returns rates vary from between 5 and 20 per cent ([16] Daugherty et al. , 2001) up to around 50 per cent in some sectors ([64] Rogers et al. , 2002; [57] Prahinski and Kocabasoglu, 2006). The total value of products being returned have been calculated at £5.75bn within UK retail sector ([6] Bernon and Cullen, 2007) while [8] Blanchard (2007) estimated product returns cost retailers and manufacturers in the USA around $100bn. Lowering product quality, as a consequence of sourcing goods from emerging economies, liberal returns polices, buyer's remorse, the rise of internet and home shopping and obsolescence linked to shortening product life cycles are a number of factors that have led to rise in this phenomenon ([6] Bernon and Cullen, 2007). The costs of dealing with returns are disproportionate compared to forward logistics and it has been likened to a process that goes the wrong way down a one way street as typically supply chains are optimised around forward logistics ([44] Lambert and Stock, 1982).
Although the literature on retail reverse logistics has been growing over the past ten years, there has been limited empirical research undertaken to define the management aspects involved ([6] Bernon and Cullen, 2007). It has been recognised that effective supply chain management can enhance customer value and reduce operating costs ([12] Christopher, 2005). But much of the logistics and supply chain research focus has been on forward logistics with no grounded research developing a conceptual framework on the reverse flow. This view is supported by [80] Tibben-Lembke (2002) who suggests that many techniques have been discovered to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of forwards logistics and that companies and researchers are just at the beginning to appreciate the important differences and how to best structure reverse logistics operations. [3] Autry (2005, p. 755) builds upon this by stating that reverse logistics is not optional but mandatory and cites that "few firms have created formal policies for dealing with product flowing backward in the...