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This paper aims to identify reverse flows and exchanges that support public service provision. Reverse flow literature has focused on manufacturing based supply chains using the lens of exchange (recovery, reuse, repair and recycle) to gain performance improvement in product flows. Limited research is available to support an understanding of customer-derived reverse exchange (RE) service processes. The authors contribute to the service literature through the development of RE antecedents and derive new and revised definitions with the supporting constructs of RE service processes.

This paper synthesises literature creating a framework of antecedents for RE. Antecedents reflect differences of service flow (level of service inseparability and ‘acting upon’). These antecedents are empirically tested within an illustrative pre-existing UK healthcare case study against the synthesised antecedents and existing RE definitions. Two teams of researchers reviewed the data generated from public service supply chain processes. Definitions of RE were either revised or derived from the empirical data by each team.

The service concept of ‘acting upon’ for inseparable public service supply chain flows provides a basis for examining the existence of reverse flows and exchanges. Revised and new classifications to the RE model are proposed to stimulate contextual performance improvement and innovation in public service provision. Psychological utility is an additional feature to economic, environmental and social utility in public service RE. RE offers practitioners and academics a strategic operational competence to achieve improvement and innovation in public services and further advance this concept.

Extending the literature beyond the manufacturing derived RE concept to develop an understanding of the customer’s role in preserving and co-creating value in RE and flows in public service. New RE antecedents for public services, including the potential of psychological utility, are presented.

End-of-life electronic products exchange (EEPE) program could be an effective approach to e-waste recycling that requires consumers' participation. Thus, it is highly recommended to study factors stirring consumer behavior with regard to EEPE programs, which is largely under-explored in the existing literature. Hence, grounding on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Attitude-Behavior-Context (A-B-C) model, this study attempts to understand the determinants of consumers' EEPE intention by adding contextual and non-cognitive factors to the proposed research model.

Employing a purposive sampling technique, respondents were drawn from university students and general consumers of electronic products in a developing country. Factor analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM) and SPSS PROCESS were used to analyze the collected data.

Empirical results confirm that subjective norm has the strongest positive impact on EEPE intention. Following this, attitude toward EEPE and perceived behavioral control play positive mediating roles in determining EEPE intention. Moreover, government initiatives moderate the unsolicited “attitude–intention gap”.

Drawing on this study's outcomes, the study urges to form comprehensive awareness-building campaigns, rules and regulations regarding proper e-waste management, promote “exchange offer” programs and educational programs to encourage EEPE.

This study makes two fresh contributions to the extant literature. First, by coupling the TPB and A-B-C theory, this study showed that both attitude (i.e. attitude toward EEPE) and context (i.e. government initiatives) are essential in eliciting individual-level post-consumption pro-environmental behavior (PEB) (i.e. EEPE). Second, government initiatives elucidate the attitude–intention gap in the reverse logistics context, especially in developing countries.

Improvement of reverse supply chains requires accurate and timely information about the patterns of consumption. In the consumer context, the ways to generate and access such use-visibility data are in their infancy. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how the Internet of Things (IoT) may be operationalised in the domestic setting to capture data on a consumer’s use of products and the implications for reverse supply chains.

This study uses an explorative case approach drawing on data from studies of six UK households. “Horizontal” data, which reveals patterns in consumers’ use processes, is generated by combining “vertical” data from multiple sources. Use processes in the homes are mapped using IDEF0 and illustrated with the data. The quantitative data are generated using wireless sensors in the home, and qualitative data are drawn from online calendars, social media, interviews and ethnography.

The study proposes four generic measurement categories for operationalising the concept of use-visibility: experience, consumption, interaction and depletion, which together address the use of different household resources. The explorative case demonstrates how these measures can be operationalised to achieve visibility of the context of use in the home. The potential of such use-visibility for reverse supply chains is discussed.

This explorative case study is based on an in-depth study of the bathroom which illustrates the application of use-visibility measures (UVMs) but provides a limited use context. Further research is needed from a wider set of homes and a wider set of use processes and contexts.

The case demonstrates the operationalisation of the combination of data from different sources and helps answer questions of “why?”, “how?”, “when?” and “how much?”, which can inform reverse supply chains. The four UVMs can be operationalised in a way that can contribute to supply chain visibility, providing accurate and timely information of consumption, optimising resource use and eliminating waste.

IDEF0 framework and case analysis is used to identify and validate four UVMs available through IoT data – that of experience, consumption, interaction and depletion. The UVMs characterise IoT data generated from a given process and inform the primary reverse flow in the future supply chain. They provide the basis for future data collection and development of theory around their effect on reverse supply chain efficiency.

Reverse mentoring and job crafting are innovative, employee-driven job resources that can lead to positive organizational outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of work engagement in mediating the association of these resources with work performance and work withdrawal behavior.

Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling on data obtained from 369 software developers in India.

Findings demonstrate that reverse mentoring and job crafting are positively related to work engagement, which, in turn, increase performance and decreases work withdrawal behaviors. Work engagement partially mediates the association of job crafting with both outcomes. In contrast, work engagement fully mediates the relationship between reverse mentoring and withdrawal behavior and partially mediates the relationship between reverse mentoring and work performance.

This study is a cross-sectional, survey design in the understudied technical industry in India, which may limit generalizability. However, the authors also connect the previously unrelated literatures on reverse mentoring and work engagement and develop a scale for use in future reverse mentoring studies.

This study provides evidence to support practitioners in implementing resources for reverse mentoring and job crafting to increase work engagement among employees and subsequent positive outcomes.

Organizations can support reverse mentoring and job crafting as cost effective employee development tools. The research focuses on the mentors, who tend to be the less experienced and younger counterparts in a reverse mentoring pair and a critical part of the workforce for the growing IT industry.

The purpose of this theoretical chapter is to rework a promising but limited theory of the foundations of reciprocity. Reciprocity is often attributed to an “internalized norm of reciprocity” – a deeply felt moral obligation to help those who have helped us in the past. Leifer's theory of local action develops a radically different and compelling foundation for reciprocity – one in which the impetus for reciprocity is a thinly veiled battle for status. We rework the theory to offer a new one that addresses its limitations. The key idea is that the impetus for reciprocity is the desire to signal that one intends to create joint value rather than to capture it from the counterparty.

Our analytical approach rests on close examination of a puzzling and underrecognized feature of social exchange: people who initiate social exchange routinely deny giving anything of value (“it was nothing”) while the receiver inflates their indebtedness to the giver (“this is too much!”). We refer to this negotiation strategy as reverse bargaining and use it as a window into the logic of social exchange.

We develop a more general theory of how people manage the threat of opportunism in social exchange that subsumes local action theory. The key insight is that people who initiate social exchange and seek reciprocity must balance two competing objectives: to ensure that the person receiving a benefit recognizes a debt she must repay; and to mitigate the receiver's suspicion that the giver's ulterior motive is to capture value from the receiver.

This study aims to address the management of reverse flows in the context of service supply chains. The study builds on the characteristics of services production reported in literature to: identify diverse types of reverse flows in services supply chains, discuss key issues associated to the management of reverse service flows and suggest directions for research for developing the knowledge for management of reverse flows in service contexts.

This study first provides an overview of the theoretical background which supports the identification and the characterization of the flows, and the reverse flows, involved in service production. A short summary of each paper accepted in this special issue is also provided to give readers an overview of the various issues around reverse exchanges in service supply chains that authors have attempted to address.

In this study, the authors identify distinct types of reverse flows in services production building on the analysis of the characteristics of service production and delivery reported in the literature. Our discussion highlights the fact that service supply chains can be quite diverse in the type of exchanges of inputs and outputs that take place between customers and providers, showing that often there can be substantial flows of items to return. In particular, and differently from manufacturing contexts, the authors highlight that in service supply chains, providers might need to handle bi-directional reverse flows.

The lack of research on reverse service supply chains is, to a great extent, a consequence of dominant paradigms which often identify the absence of physical product flows as a key distinguishing feature of service supply chains, and therefore lead to the misbelief that in services there is nothing to return. This special issue therefore aims to clarify this misunderstanding through the limited selection of eight papers that address various issues around reverse exchanges in service supply chains.

While theoretical and empirical research in supply chain is abundant, management of reverse exchanges in service supply chain is sparse. In this special issue we aim to provide the first contribution to understand how the characteristics of service production raise new issues for the management of reverse flows in service supply chains, and to foster the development of adequate management strategies.

This paper aims to explore patient to care provider reverse exchanges to improve the care processes and service supply chain using an online feedback platform. This paper demonstrates how a better understanding of timely and unsolicited feedback (“voice of the patient as a customer”) stimulates local interventions to improve service delivery and enact the essential characteristics of highly reliable organisations (HRO).

A realist approach involving an exploratory hospital case study using user feedback from an IT patient feedback platform. The methodology included interviews, secondary data and access to thousands of patient feedback narratives.

The findings show that a systems approach to the supply chain, using real-time feedback to enact process improvement is beneficial and a fruitful source of innovation for professional services staff. The setting of the improvement focusses on a true “voice of the customer” rather than attempting to improve arbitrarily internal process efficiency has major benefits for staff and their engagement with the right interventions to support higher performance.

The findings show major positive benefits for the adaptation and constant reflection of staff on the service provided to patients. The approach provides a means of reflecting as to whether the current supply chain and service provision are fit for purpose, as well as reliable, efficient and of value to the consumer.

This study is one of a few that adopt the consumer orientation needed to fully exploit the concepts of patient-centric improvement by including dynamic feedback in the supply chain and systems approach to care.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how reverse resource exchanges and resource dependencies are managed in the service supply chain (SSC) of returnable transport packaging (RTP).

A single case study was conducted in the context of automotive logistics focusing on the RTP SSC. Data were collected through 16 interviews, primarily with managers of a logistics service provider (LSP) and document analysis of contractual agreements with key customers of the packaging service.

Resource dependencies among actors in the SSC result from the importance of the RTP for the customer’s production processes, the competition among users for RTP and the negative implications of the temporary unavailability of RTP for customers and the LSP (in terms of service performance). Amongst other things, the LSP is dependent on its customers and third-party users (e.g. the customer’s suppliers) for the timely return of package resources. The role of inter-firm integration and collaboration, formal contracts as well as customers’ power and influence over third-party RTP users are stressed as key mechanisms for managing LSP’s resource dependencies.

A resource dependence theory (RDT) lens is used to analyse how reverse resource exchanges and associated resource dependencies in SSCs are managed, thus complementing the existing SSC literature emphasising the bi-directionality of resource flows. The study also extends the recent SSC literature stressing the role of contracting by empirically demonstrating how formal contracts can be mobilised to explicate resource dependencies and to specify, and regulate, reverse exchanges in the SSC.

The research suggests that logistics providers can effectively manage their resource dependencies and regulate reverse exchanges in the SSC by deploying contractual governance mechanisms and leveraging their customers’ influence over third-party RTP users.

The study is novel in its application of RDT, which enhances our understanding of the management of reverse exchanges and resource dependencies in SSCs.

Reverse mentoring is gaining attention as a means to engage and retain young employees by facilitating the exchange of knowledge, ideas and perspectives with their senior counterparts (leaders). Despite its widespread recognition, there remains a significant scarcity of empirical evidence regarding its enablers and effectiveness. Building on this research gap, this study aims to investigate the association between leader humility, reverse mentoring and subordinate turnover intentions using the theoretical frameworks of job demand resource theory and social exchange theory. In addition, the study assesses how leader competence moderates the impact of leader humility on promoting reverse mentoring.

The study used time-lagged multi-wave data with a two-week interval between each wave, collected from 386 information technology professionals working in different organisations in India. The hypotheses developed were tested using partial least square structural equation modelling.

The finding from the analysis reveals that leader humility had a significant impact in promoting reverse mentoring, which consequently led to reduced subordinate turnover intentions. In addition, leader competence positively moderates the association between leader humility and reverse mentoring.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to empirically examine the impact of reverse mentoring on subordinates’ turnover intentions, as well as the indirect effect of leader humility on turnover intention through reverse mentoring. Furthermore, the study sheds light on the previously under-researched boundary conditions of leader humility.

Despite the growing interest in reverse exchange, studies on the subject from the perspective of consumer participation and motivation remain sparse. Consumers’ participation in reverse exchange is a key component of supply-chain reverse logistics. To address the gap in existing studies, this paper aims to empirically identify the intention and causes of consumer electronic product exchange (EPE). The proposed research model incorporates value-belief-norm and neutralization theories, linking consumers’ values to their intentions to participate in EPE.

Survey data collected from 250 consumers were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This discussion shows that people are more likely to present positive attitudes when they are ethically concerned. However, this tendency is not without exceptions and behavior influenced by ethics was not always observed. Upon examination, the findings highlight moderating forces of psychological tension that arise when people behave in ways that are in apparent contradiction to their expressed positive attitudes.

It is important to modify the model by analyzing consumers’ actual EPE behaviors. Future research should also reconsider the results from a longitudinal perspective.

The reverse logistics management practices proposed offer valuable insight into other various activities as well, including an integrated supply chain model and improving customer service.

The proposed action of EPE encourages consumers as well as managers to reduce, recycle or effectively dispose of waste.

Current reverse exchange models are insufficient for measuring consumer motivations perspective, which is a key but inadequately researched perspective of determining the effectiveness of reverse logistics management. This research endeavors to fill this gap and augment previous studies in EPE by advancing the discussion on how the concept of reverse logistics management is evaluated and justified in relation to consumption values and psychological motivations.