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In an Internet direct sales supply chain, the customers buy direct from the manufacturer sacrificing the benefit of physical inspection of the product. This increases the likelihood that customers will have some dissatisfaction with the product and would like to return it. A clearly explained and generous return policy, then, will be welcome by the customers and therefore will enhance demand. From the manufacturer's point of view, this will increase revenue, but will also increase cost due to increased likelihood of return. This paper develops a profit‐maximization model to obtain optimal policies for price and the return policy in terms of certain market reaction parameters. It obtains jointly a number of managerial guidelines for using marketing and operational strategy variables to influence the reaction parameters so as to obtain the maximum benefit from the market. The paper mentions several future research possibilities.

The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).

This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.

The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.

This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.

This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.

An effective return policy is used as an important competitive weapon in the marketplace to substantially influence product sales. However, return policy is also seen as a problem for all parties in the supply chain due to the headache in processing returned merchandise. While retailers are efficient in selling, they do not usually have the expertise in handling the reverse flow. The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of a fourth party logistics (4PL) as a return service provider, and develops optimal decision policies for both the seller and the 4PL.

A profit‐maximization model is presented to jointly obtain optimal policies for the seller and the 4PL through the use of Stackelberg like game theory, where the seller acts as the leader and the 4PL acts as the follower.

Optimal values for the seller's and the 4PL's decisions are presented. Conditions under which profits for the seller and 4PL both increase are shown.

This paper offers a number of managerial guidelines for using marketing and operational strategy variables to influence the market reaction parameters so as to obtain the maximum benefit from the market.

This paper offers insights to seller and 4PL on how return policy may affect their strategic alliance. Treating return policy as a continuous variable is an original contribution of this paper as is the joint optimization of the seller and the 4PL.

The study focuses on (1) the success of three strategies employed during the pandemic – two “persevering” strategies, curbside pickup and return window extension and one innovative strategy, virtual try-on technology and (2) whether the strategies are likely to be successful in the post-pandemic world.

The authors utilize a panel dataset containing 17 department store chains in the US The panel includes weekly sales by the retailers at the city level from 2018 to 2021, encompassing both a pre-COVID-19 period and a period during the pandemic. A two-way fixed effects model, including retailer-city fixed effects and year-week fixed effects, is used to estimate department store sales.

The authors find that the two persevering strategies offset the negative impact of government-imposed containment and health measures on sales performance. On the other hand, the innovative strategy is more effective with a low level of containment and health measures, leading to our observation that virtual try-on may be more sustainable than the other two strategies in a post-pandemic environment.

This paper makes the following contributions: First, the authors contribute to the literature on strategies that may be used to respond to crises. Second, the authors contribute to the retail management literature, assessing the impact of the three retail strategies on department store sales. Finally, the authors compare the impact on sales of the two persevering strategies to the innovative strategy and conclude that a mix of these types of strategies may be most effective at generating short-term sales during a crisis and longer-term sales post crisis.

To provide practitioners of knowledge management with a sense of the importance of reverse logistics as an important part of today's company policies, especially throughout the product life cycle, with the accompanying technology that supports it and the effects on customer relation management (CRM) and satisfaction.

A review of the applied literature of reverse logistics and its effects on CRM resulted in a basic model and empirical verification of such effects.

As shown from the empirical section of the present study (n=102), the ease of locating returns procedures and the rating given by respondents to the overall returns process were found to be statistically very significant regarding whether the ease of returning items had an influence on purchasing decisions for most respondents. As demonstrated in the results of stepwise regression analysis of the two independent variables, the largest share of explained variance was explained by the variable, Returns' Procedures.

The purpose of reverse logistics is to accommodate customers wanting to return items and how to account for such accommodations. The breakdown, process, and analysis of reverse logistics will portray the significance of having reverse logistics implemented within a marketing or strategic plan.

This paper describes reverse logistics and CRM within a knowledge‐based system and its implementation process in an academic manner. Hence, there should be a process in place and managers should work to master reserve logistical processes to promote the principles of CRM properly. To remain competitive, firms must develop reverse logistics systems that rival traditional systems in terms of efficiency, cost‐effectiveness, competitiveness, and customer satisfaction.

Many companies and small businesses do not think about the importance and impact of reverse logistics and therefore do not include reverse logistics in their strategic or marketing plan. There are several important aspects of reverse logistics that need to be utilized in every company that exploit and track return policies.