Research in closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs) has grown rapidly over the last 10 years. The authors offer a critical review of influential CLSC research that takes a business economics perspective. Much of the research was inspired by practice-driven thoughtpieces, and this helped to keep research focused on relevant issues. However, CLSC research has several assumptions, such as perfect substitution between new and remanufactured products that risk becoming institutionalized. There is a strong need to carefully examine current industrial practice so that research remains focused on relevant problems. Deeper understanding of consumer perceptions of remanufactured products, product diffusion, and valuation of returned products are needed for the field to continue to add insights into developing sustainable economies.

Production and Operations Management

The background and main idea of Vendor-managed Inventory are introduced and the process to implement VMI and the developing trend of VMI are described.

Vendor-managed Inventory in Supply Chain

Effects of carbon emission reduction on supply chain coordination with vendor-managed deteriorating product inventory

Impact of cloud-based information sharing on hospital supply chain performance: A system dynamics framework

Flexible contract design for VMI supply chain with service-sensitive demand: Revenue-sharing and supplier subsidy

In large industries like aerospace, automotive with high set up costs for manufacturing, the manufacturer often plays a dominant role in determining the batch sizes. The obvious choice for the manufacturer is to produce everything in one set up, to minimize his overall costs. Under this scenario, it may be worthwhile for the buyer to offer the manufacturer an increase in the wholesale price to entice the manufacturer to reduce the batch sizes. Such a mechanism is in effect a “reverse discounting” procedure. This paper examines the economics of reverse discounting in the context of deterministic but dynamic demand. The formulation involves the solution of Mixed Integer Linear Programming Problem (MILP).

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A reverse discount model for dynamic demands

Analysis of power dynamics in sustainable supply chain under non-linear demand setup

In the just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing system, the vendors ship in small batch sizes. Hence the buyers are at an advantageous position as they can reduce their inventory holding costs. The practice of shipping in smaller batch sizes often results in the vendors incurring high costs as the number of production setups and the number of shipments increases for the vendors. The vendors could only switch to JIT mode when there is an assurance from the buyer of providing some compensation for the increased costs. This compensation from the buyer to the vendors is called ‘surcharge price’. In our work, we have studied the surcharge pricing mechanism in the presence of backorder when there is a powerful vendor and have shown that the it can coordinate a decentralized supply chain. Our study incorporates both the cases of the buyer holding full information about the vendors’ costs as well as the case of information asymmetry. In the case of full information, we have shown that the optimal order quantity in the presence of surcharge pricing is less than that of the vendor dominated scenario. At the same time, the optimal order quantity is higher than that in the buyer dominated scenario. Further, the total supply chain costs are also minimized when a surcharge pricing contract is offered in comparison to both the buyer and the vendor dominated scenarios. For the information asymmetry case, we have framed the optimal set of screening contracts and have shown that an optimal surcharge pricing contract to the vendor is free from the probability distribution of the vendor type.

A surcharge pricing policy for supply chain coordination under the just-in-time (JIT) environment in the presence of backordering

Role of power imbalance on channel coordination under greening investments


Purpose
Does the simultaneous vertical and horizontal alignment of HR systems positively impact innovation? The authors use the “innovation value chain” model to explore the interplay between the central strategic human resource management concepts of vertical and horizontal fit of HR systems and their role in positively impacting product innovation management.


Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the findings from a case study of a large multinational organization in the high-tech sector for the present study. In the first phase, the authors analyse responses to 20 qualitative interviews with senior business and HR executives at the organization using the grounded theory approach. In the second phase, the authors analysed six years of performance ratings and salary data for 4,500–5,500 employees.


Findings
Phase 1 of the study established the importance of innovation management as a strategic priority and the role of vertical and horizontal fit of HR systems and practices in positively impacting innovation management. Phase 2 reinforced the findings from Phase 1 by demonstrating the vertical and horizontal fit of the performance and compensation management processes towards furthering innovation management. Our study findings suggest that both forms of fit boost innovation management and interact to reinforce each other mutually, magnifying their respective positive effects towards improving innovation management.


Originality/value
While past studies have generally focused on the isolated role of either the HR system or that of a bundle of HR practices on innovation, the present study empirically demonstrates the simultaneous role of vertical and horizontal fit of HR systems and practices in furthering innovation management. The authors use interviews with senior executives and objective performance and salary data to provide the first experimental evidence of the mechanism of the interplay between the two forms of fit.


Abhishek Chakraborty

Papers

A reverse discount model for dynamic demands

Analysis of power dynamics in sustainable supply chain under non-linear demand setup

A surcharge pricing policy for supply chain coordination under the just-in-time (JIT) environment in the presence of backordering

Role of power imbalance on channel coordination under greening investments

Furthering innovation management via mutual amplification of vertical and horizontal fit: analysis of a case study