A comprehensive survey into reverse logistics and Closed-Loop Supply Chain aspects to provide analyses and insights for implementation

As a frequent part of the product life cycle in recent years, product returns rapidly fill up landfills and consequently cause serious environmental and social damage unless appropriately managed. Companies usually applied Reverse Logistics (RL) and Closed-Loop Supply Chain (CLSC) management to handle the returns. While examining RL and CLSC through social science and humanities perspectives provides valuable insights for decision-makers, this area is underexplored in the literature. Unlike the previous studies focusing on limited geographical scope and industry, this research explored global RL and CLSC activities in different industries. The results are also compared across developed and developing countries. Up-to-date data are collected through a novel questionnaire and analysed utilizing descriptive statistics, parametric and non-parametric statistical tests. The study’s results highlighted several key findings: a) direct feedback systems help reducing early returns, b) large companies benefit from expanding recovery options and return channels to handle more later returns, c) RL adoption improves both economic and environmental performances of companies worldwide, d) Economic and knowledge related barriers are the primary obstacles to RL adoption globally, and e) return uncertainty elements discourage top managers from implementing RL practices. The main theoretical implications include identifying factors such as company size and position in feedback system adoption, as well as the relationship between return channel expansion and both recovery practices and company size. Practically, effective RL adoption requires strategic management and financial support from governments and policy makers due to economic and knowledge-related barriers.