Search results

This study conducts a systematic literature review of e-tail product returns research. E-tail product returns are essentially acquisition of products that have been sold through purely online or brick-and-click channels and then returned by consumer to business.

Using a systematic literature review protocol, we identified 75 peer-reviewed articles on e-tail product returns, conducted bibliometric analysis and content analysis of the articles and summarised our findings.

The findings reveal that the subject of e-tail returns is a new research area; academics have started to investigate several aspects of e-tail returns through different research methodologies and theoretical foundations. Further research is required in leading e-commerce countries and on key areas such as omni-channel returns management, customer satisfaction and service, the impact of resources such as people skills, the benefits of technology and IT systems in managing e-tail returns.

The study offers a summative account of current e-tail knowledge areas, which can serve as a reference guide for e-tailers to develop strategies for more efficient and competitive product returns.

This study contributes theoretically by developing clusters of key themes or knowledge areas about e-tail returns. It also provides a conceptual framework for e-tail returns management, which can be used as a springboard for further empirical research.

This research investigates employee and guest satisfaction, guests’ perceptions of value and their intention to return. Considered are hotel workers’ job satisfaction, how job satisfaction impacts guests’ satisfaction with the service experience and with the physical attributes of the hotel and how these variables affect perceived value and intention to return.

Structural equation modeling is used to analyze data from a large global hotel chain.

Guest satisfaction with service and the physical attributes of the hotel differentially impact guest outcomes of intention to return and perceptions of value. Key findings are guest satisfaction with the physical attributes of a hotel is significantly more strongly linked to guests’ intention to return than is satisfaction with service received. Staff job satisfaction is significantly linked to guests being more satisfied with the service experience and their return intentions. Of all the factors directly contributing to guests’ return intentions, guest satisfaction with the physical attributes of the hotel was largest in impact. In contrast guest satisfaction with service is linked to guests’ perceptions of value, whereas satisfaction with the physical aspects is not significant. Guests’ perceptions of value do not impact intention to return.

The research was conducted within one global hotel chain, which due to its cross-sectional nature may possibly be a limitation. However, its single organizational nature does not diminish the importance of the findings.

Hotel managers need to consider the importance of the physical attributes of properties in what has been largely a services-dominated debate. What guests value may not lead to repeat business.

Providing excellent customer service may not be the main motivation for return business. Also, holistic measures of guest satisfaction may not accurately measure what guests value. Perceived value is not a significant predictor of intention to return.

The authors explore complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory as an updated theoretical perspective for managing product returns that better matches the chaotic nature of recent consumer behaviors. CAS theory highlights the importance of agents who create and self-organize to help systems adapt in unpredictable environments.

This research utilizes data collected from return managers in an online survey and applies regression analyses to estimate the influence of the focal variables.

Empirical evidence of the firm flexibility–firm adaptability link is established, and return processor creativity positively relates to this link. The firm flexibility–firm adaptability link fully mediates the relationship between return processor creativity and returns management performance and partially mediates the relationship between return processor creativity and relationship quality. Nonmediated effects were observed for turnover and revenue size.

Managers of returns who embrace an adaptability approach become facilitators of returns by supporting processor creativity. Enhancing the autonomy of processors in their day-to-day work increases the knowledge-creation capabilities of the firm, which helps the firm move forward and adapt in an uncertain environment.

This research presents empirical evidence of the underlying mechanisms of CAS theory in the product returns context by studying processor agents and argues that CAS theory better fits the current dynamics of the product returns environment. Further, this paper extends work by Espinosa et al. (2019) and Nilsson (2019) by studying how a specific human characteristic – creativity – impacts product returns management.

This study investigated business-to-business (B2B) repeated purchase intent and its relationships with customer value and customer satisfaction. Additionally, it explored the link between willingness to purchase again, switching costs and product returns management. Modern customers are more likely to switch suppliers; however, previous research suggests that this behaviour can be attenuated by a robust returns management experience. The purpose of this study was to provide a revised model of B2B repeated purchase intent that integrates the concept of product returns management and switching costs with existing B2B customer repurchase intent models.

First, a qualitative inquiry based on semi-structured interviews was conducted to test and develop a quantitative survey. Then a survey was then sent to business owners operating in the audiology industry. Finally, there were 317 responses.

The authors reveal the complex relationship between returns management and repeated purchase intent. Specifically, the authors’ results indicate that the effect of product returns on repurchase intent is opposite to the effect of customer value, depending on the value of customer value. The authors’ findings indicate that even when switching costs are low, firms can positively impact the intent to purchase again in the future if they increase the level of customer satisfaction. In addition, the authors’ findings indicate that in the context of B2B a high/low level of customer satisfaction does not trigger a positive effect of managing product returns on repurchase intent.

This study was the first to introduce the concept of product returns management to research on B2B repurchase intent.

The purpose of this study is to address two issues relevant to those managing product returns: (1) how customers perceive the returning process and assessing the extent that these perceptions have on satisfaction with the organization, loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM) and (2) are these outcomes moderated by whether customer returns were planned or unplanned?

The data consisted of 21 semi-structured interviews (pilot study) and a quantitative survey (n = 384; main study) targeted at consumers who had bought fashion items online.

Qualitative insights revealed that perceptions of the returning experience are driven by monetary costs, convenience, stress and guilt. Quantitative findings showed that the returning experience explains return satisfaction for both planned and unplanned returners, and returning satisfaction explains overall satisfaction and WOM. The noteworthy difference concerns loyalty: although customers that planned to return items are more loyal to the organization, it is the unplanned returners whose loyalty can be significantly increased by better managing the returning process.

Returning products online is increasingly common and thus forms an important part of the customer's overall experience with an organization. Returns management can therefore drive key customer outcomes. Understanding the dynamics between the product return experience, return satisfaction and customer outcomes will help practitioners design and implement more informed returns management strategies. Measures are also presented that assess the cognitive and emotional aspects associated with returning products.

Returning products is an increasingly important challenge for online retailers. Understanding what kinds of returning behaviors occur allows companies to design and execute better informed decisions to manage this phenomenon, not only for the sake of firm performance but also for societal and environmental benefits – the triple bottom line.

While scholars have investigated the relationship between return policies (e.g. free vs fee) and profitability, no prior literature has examined the returning experience: how consumers perceive the returning process; motivations for their returns (whether returns were planned or not) and subsequent customer outcomes.

How appropriate are the innovation returns from offshored information technology (IT) research and development (R&D)? In light of the emergence and spate of IT R&D offshoring, this paper aims to investigate the mechanics of governance in attracting IT R&D inflow in offshored hosts and, more importantly, whether R&D offshoring provides instrumental and legitimate IT innovation returns (intellectual property (IP)) to outsourcing countries as investors.

The authors combine the calculus of host‐country governance and IT R&D inflows with IT innovation returns to the US from its offshored IT R&D investments. They argue on the basis of the golden mean – a principle of moderation where too little or too stringent governance deters IT R&D investments; more importantly, too little and too much IT R&D investments fail to stimulate IT innovation returns to the investors.

An analysis of 81 World Trade Organization (WTO) countries underscores the authors' argument that the calculus between governance and IT innovation productivity is mediated by IT R&D investments. However, the relationship is non‐linear with diminishing marginal returns‐to‐scale.

The non‐linear relationships between governance, R&D foreign direct investments (FDI) and patent‐level returns show a threshold effect often overlooked by existing research. Together, this article points out the need for researchers to consider diminishing returns to scale from overarching emphases on governance or IT R&D over‐investments.

As multinational companies in developed countries increasingly offshore IT‐related R&D, this investigation is relevant, current, and disconcerting – implying the need for multinationals to revisit their IT R&D offshoring strategies and priorities.

These research findings do not support the “win‐win” pitch for IT R&D offshoring. Instead, this research points to the fact that, while there are some economic benefits derived from R&D FDI, there are inflection points beyond which innovations returns diminish. Where the inflection point lies depends on countries as well as specific firms and industries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of self‐congruence on consumer satisfaction with services and to develop and test a conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences of consumer satisfaction in the hospitality industry.

The conceptual framework consists of the following constructs: actual self‐congruence, ideal self‐congruence, desires congruence, service quality, consumers' overall attitude to a service firm, and intention to return. Moreover, 12 hypotheses were developed and tested. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the validity of the measures, while PLS was used in hypotheses testing. Data were collected from 185 consumers who had recently visited a restaurant or hotel.

Strong support was found for 11 of the 12 hypotheses. Findings reveal that ideal self‐congruence and desires congruence have positive effects on consumer satisfaction. In contrast, it is shown that actual self‐congruence is not related to consumer satisfaction. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the two dimensions of service quality – physical quality and staff behaviour – have a positive impact on both desires congruence and consumer satisfaction. Importantly, consumer satisfaction is found to be a better indicator of the consumers' overall attitude to the service firm than service quality. The study confirms that consumer satisfaction mediates the relationship between the two service quality dimensions, ideal self‐congruence, and intention to return.

This study makes four important contributions. First, satisfaction research is advanced by integrating self‐concept theory into the postpurchase evaluation of services. Second, the relationship between the multidimensional nature of service quality and consumer satisfaction is examined by testing paths from two posited dimensions of service quality – physical quality and staff behaviour – to satisfaction. Third, the consumers' overall attitude to a service firm is integrated into existing models of satisfaction and its impact on behavioural loyalty (intention to return) is tested. Finally, a contribution is made to the satisfaction research literature by testing the effect of service quality on desires congruence, and the effect of desires congruence on consumer satisfaction.

This study investigates the impacts of return channel type on the relationships between return service quality (RSQ) and customer loyalty (CL) in an omnichannel retailing environment.

Data comes from Chinese customers having a return experience in omnichannel retailing that uses the channel type of both buy-online-return-in-store (BORIS) and buy-in-store-return-to-online warehouses (BSROW). The authors use the structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses and the bootstrapping method to test the mediation and moderation effect.

For BORIS channel, satisfaction of customer returns (CRS) partially mediates the relationship between convenience and CL, and fully mediates that between CL and responsiveness, transparency and competence, respectively. For BSROW channel, CRS partially mediates the relationship between responsiveness and CL, and fully mediates that between CL and convenience, transparency and competence, respectively. The mediation effects indicate that omnichannel customers may feel more satisfied due to higher omnichannel fulfillment (responsiveness and convenience) and omnichannel trust (transparency and competence) provided by retailers. Return channel type moderates the relationship between RSQ-convenience and CL. The results show the different expectations between BORIS and BSROW customers in the return process.

This paper serves as a pioneering study to apply cognition-affect-behavior paradigm into the field of return management in omnichannel retailing.

The findings suggest retailers develop their strategies on customer returns and post-sales service quality improvement in the omnichannel. Also, retailers should develop an integrated return system across channels to provide convenient service to BORIS customers and quick response to BSROW customers.

Studying return service management in the omnichannel from customer's cognition appraisal, this study contributes to the literature of the reverse service management by bringing in the effect of omnichannel type to explore the relationship between RSQ and CL.

Deshopping is the return of products, after they have fulfilled the purpose for which they were borrowed. Previous research indicates that deshopping is a prevalent and growing consumer behaviour. This paper seeks to examine deshopping from a retail perspective. It is a case study of interviews conducted with a mass‐market retailer, to investigate their awareness and management of this behaviour.

This paper is a case study of nine interviews conducted with different levels of staff at a mass‐market retailer in their flagship London store, to investigate their awareness and management of deshopping.

The findings demonstrate the beliefs, attitudes and emotions of the different levels of employees towards deshopping and demonstrate their attempts to manage deshopping and combat the negative affects of this on customer service.

The limitation of this research is that it is only conducted with one high‐street retailer. However, it is important to highlight that this is a large women's wear retailer which is highly representative of other retailers within the sector. There is little detail given regarding the retailer itself or their fundamentals of the actual customer service policy; this is due to the confidentiality agreement between the researcher and retailer. It is important to acknowledge the sensitivity of this type of research to retailers who are reluctant to have this information publicised. It is also important to acknowledge that many retailers have not made any attempts to manage this behaviour by restricting their returns policy. So, this research case study is conducted with a retailer that is actively introducing change to manage this behaviour.

The research concludes with the implications of deshopping and its management and makes recommendations on how to reduce deshopping whilst maintaining customer service for the genuine consumer.

This is the first case study with a mass‐market retailer, highlighting their approaches towards managing deshopping whilst trying to maintain customer service.

Compared with the emphasis that service quality research has received in online marketing, much less work has been done on the role of price perception, service attribute‐level performance and satisfaction that unfolds over time, and their effects on customer retention. This paper seeks to fill this gap in the literature.

This paper builds propositions about the role of price and customer satisfaction at different stages on customers' intention to return. Research hypotheses are developed based on theory from the combined literatures of services, product pricing, and behavioral decision theory. Data from the e‐retailing industry related to two specific periods of shopping experience (at checkout and after delivery) are used in the empirical tests. Structural equation modeling is employed to test the hypothesized relationships.

The findings of this study indicate that after‐delivery satisfaction has a much stronger influence on both overall customer satisfaction and intention to return than at‐checkout satisfaction, and that price perception, when measured on a comparative basis, has a direct and positive effect on customer overall satisfaction and intention to return.

The data are only available from surveying customers who have made purchases. Future study can investigate how satisfaction with shopping convenience has impacted customer acquisition. Measures of actual return behavior, as opposed to behavioral intentions, will also enhance the validity of the study.

This paper concludes that excellence pre‐sales service is not necessarily an advantage that allows e‐tailers to develop customer retention. In fact, e‐tailers might command higher customer retention through providing good performance in after‐delivery service and continuously generating favorable price perceptions among customers because both have a strong and positive influence on return intention.

This research conceptualizes and explores different aspects of satisfaction that unfold over time, regarding customers' whole shopping experience with a particular e‐retailer. It is a pioneer work that empirically investigates the relative contribution of at‐checkout and after‐delivery satisfaction in generating intention to return to an e‐tailer.