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Citation: Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics Barriers
on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230,
http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
Received: 03.01.2021, Accepted: 02.03.2021, on-line: 12.04.2021.
LogForum > Scientific Journal of Logistics <
http://www.logforum.net p-ISSN 1895-2038
2021, 17 (2), 213-230
http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
e-ISSN 1734-459X
ORIGINAL PAPER
IMPACT OF REVERSE LOGISTICS BARRIERS ON SUSTAINABLE FIRM PERFORMANCE VIA REVERSE LOGISTICS PRACTICES
Muhammad Waqas1, Xue Honggang1, Syed Abdul Rehman Khan2, Naveed
Ahmad3, Zia Ullah4, Muzaffar Iqbal5
1) Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, 2) Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 3) Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, 4) Lahore Leads University, Lahore, Pakistan, 5) Tianjin University, Tanjian, China
ABSTRACT. Background: Due to the industrial revolution, extensive production, more raw materials are consumed, which are enough for landfills and disturbing environmental integrity. RL is an established concept in developed
countries in comparison to developing countries. RL implementation is in its infancy due to some barriers. Therefore, the
purpose of this study is to identify the RL barriers through literature review and to check their effect on the adoption of
RL practices and to explain either they influence the firm performance or not.
Method: Data were collected from the employees of manufacturing companies and relevant government institutes and later were analyzed by using the structural equation modelling technique. A novel structural model connecting all study
variables was developed to verify the impact of RL barriers on sustainable firm performance.
Results: Study results show that Infrastructure & technology, Financial & economic, Knowledge & experience-based barriers are critical and negatively affect the adoption of RL practices. The adoption of RL practices has a positive effect
on the company’s economic and environmental performance both. Further, the mediating role of adoption of RL practices
between RL barriers and firm performance was also found.
Conclusion: The results of this research help to extend literature presenting that the ecological modernization and new environmental laws and regulation should be integrated with enterprises to mitigate infrastructure & technology, financial
& economic and knowledge & experience related barriers by conducting proper training programs and promoting
sustainability among company’s top management.
Key words: sustainability, reverse logistics adoption, barriers, manufacturing companies, Pakistan.
INTRODUCTION
The reverse logistics (RL) started to get
attention from the mid-1980s. The primary
focus of these studies was to promote
sustainability through internal, external and
practical integration of RL processes and
procedures. Since customers have become
more sensitive in their buying and using, the
demand for innovative and environmentally
friendly products has been increased. In the
current era, competitiveness is becoming more
powerful tool in manufacturing sectors that
directs to produce innovative products and
services and bringing significant improvement
in firms. However, world’s concern about
climate changes is becoming an indispensable
issue. More recently, the impact of
manufacturing industry has significantly
increased on soil, water, and air pollution, to
cope with this situation, RL is considered as an
effective tool to recover these aspects [Waqas,
Dong et al. 2018].
Reverse flow of different used products,
recycling and reusing it as a raw material by
manufacturing industry has been getting
attention from past few decades. Developing
the reverse flow of used products is not only
,
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics
Barriers on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
214
the responsibility of manufacturing industry,
but consumers may also have the responsibility
as being the integral part of industrial
manufacturing and recycling process.
Recently, RL is start attracting both scholars
and manufacturers in whole world but
unfortunately it is at early stages in developing
economies especially in Pakistan due to
various constraints.
Rapid urban population, development in
technology, the production, and utilization of
shortening lifecycle products and services have
increased worldwide. Massive production
required massive raw material consumption in
production process, which is enough for
landfills and are filling up. However, the cost
of used product reprocessing is higher than the
cost of landfilling in Europe. Therefore,
manufacturing firms in developing world
preffered to dumped it in open environment
without any proper treatment [Abdulrahman,
Gunasekaran et al. 2014] . “Reverse logistics
(RL) is a process of dealing with products and
services that have been retuned by customers
to the company with the objective of worth
creation, cost reduction and environmental
protection” [Govindan and Bouzon 2018].
Implementation of RL practices can assist the
manufacturers how to reduce their impact on
world ecological system by lessening the effect
of end-of-life goods on the atmosphere.
Furthermore, the companies have been
influenced by various constraints to
implementing the RL practices. However, it’s
not easy to overcome these barriers
[Abdulrahman, Gunasekaran et al. 2014].
Commonly, barriers and issues related to
RL tend to be a forward step to bring
sustainability within the industry [Govindan
and Bouzon 2018] and all those manufacturing
companies that protect and meet the
environmental standard may confront various
challenges in their operations. Though, in
literature, very few studies identify the barriers
to adoption of RL practices.
Practices of RL includes many activities
e.g. waste management, recycling, reusing,
reprocess, material recovery and design for RL
which can help any organizations to convert
their opportunities into profit [Wang, Jiang et
al. 2019]. Therefore, adoption of RL practices
have more potential for increasing the
performance of RL and also add a greater
impact on firms’ economic performance (ECP)
and environmental performance (ENP) in
manufacturing industry. RL practices are the
main drivers for application of sustainable
development in manufacturing firms.
Moreover, the research articles that provide the
discussion of RL practices and barriers and
drivers, focus on reverse logistics performance,
product transformation and innovation
[Cordano, Marshall et al. 2010]. Therefore, the
direct link among RL barriers and RL practices
is still ambiguous. The direct and indirect
impact of RL barriers and RL practices on
manufacturing firm’s performance indicators
also needs better understanding in literature,
because till present the majority of scholars
evaluated the RL barriers and RL practices
from the economic viewpoint [Waqas, Dong et
al. 2018]. Unfortunately, after searching the
comprehensive literature review a few research
articles were found on adoption of RL
practices and manufacturing industry
performance in perspectives of ECP and ENP
indicators.
On the behalf of above-mentioned studies
and in association with Subramanian and
Abdulrahman [2017], who has developed
a framework to understand the role of RL
barriers in application of RL activities and to
enhance the manufacturing industry
performance in perspective of ECP and ENP.
The key determination of current paper is to
evaluate the barriers and issues to RL and to
check their impact on adoption of RL practices
and to explain either they influence the firm
performance or not. Barriers to reverse
logistics may differ from context to context
and as well as may differ from company to
company and country to country [Govindan
and Bouzon 2018]. The major contribution of
the article is as follow:
According to authors best knowledge and
literature, the current study gathered various
significant concepts in one conceptual
framework including, till present that were
treated individually in the previous researches.
Theoretical and hypothetical implications are
applied on environmental modernization, ECP
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics Barriers
on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
215
and ENP with the glance of manufacturing
firms of Pakistan. This study develops
a complete understanding of barriers to RL that
can be related to improving RL practices
helping concern authorities to implement
reverse logistics and to attain a better fit among
RL practices and firm performance.
This study is conducted on manufacturing
industry of Pakistan, a most populous country
at the face of earth with 211 million inhabitants
and positioned at number 6th in world
population. In South Asia, Pakistan is the
second largest economy with 988.2 billion
GDP with 4.7 growth rate [US.CIA 2016].
Identifying the barriers affecting adoption of
RL practices and its role in improving firm
performance is necessary because Pakistan is
standing at number 7th in the world which is
most affected by global warming. On the other
hand, due to environmental threats to Pakistan,
Pakistan environmental protection agency
(PAK-EPA) has introduced the new policy
environment which is national policy on solid
waste of Pakistan (NPSWP) under the section
13 & 14 of Pakistan environmental protection
Act, Hazardous Substance Rule (2003) and its
new contracts with European Union (EU) at
Generalised Scheme of preferences (GPS+) to
“promote sustainable development and good
governance” in beneficiary nations.
Furthermore, recent research in other
developing countries evaluated barriers to RL
in China, Indian [Chaudhary, Mathiyazhagan
et al. 2017] and Brazil [Govindan and Bouzon
2018], but unfortunately there is no such kind
of empirical research exist in Pakistan. As,
Pakistani managerial style is different from
other developing countries in term of cultural
attitude toward adopting new environmentally
friendly practices. Pakistani manufacturing
companies may face more obstacles at the time
of adopting new managerial practices as their
directors are reluctant to adopt change and
green management practices [Waqas, Dong et
al. 2018]. Unique cultural characteristics of
country and reluctance to adopt new
managerial practices is developing a strong
foundation of empirical study.
Further, structure of paper is arranged in
given sections: literature review and
hypothesis development are located section 2.
Research methodology is presented in section
3. Section 4 describes results and data analysis
and discussions are shown in section 5. Section
6 and section 7 presents conclusions and
practical implication and future research
direction respectively.
LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT
Barriers to RL adoption and RL practices
Due to environmental degradation, Pakistan
is developing new environmental laws and
regulation such as national policy on the solid
waste of Pakistan (NPSWP), and struggling to
protect the environment to reduce pollution
and promote RL practices between public and
manufacturing firm’s. This situation could be
improved with the help of environmental
modernization and formulation of new
environmental laws and regulations that can
enforce manufacturing firms to bring green
innovations in their production processes. In
developing countries, ecological modernization
can be utilized to understand a greener and
sustainable context. Manufacturing firms must
adopt green practices to bring sustainability,
that can be done using their capabilities and
resources to attain competitiveness on the base
of environmental management and improve
firm performance. Investing on green product
development, waste reduction and controlling
carbon emission and may help to maintain the
manufacturers competitive andvantages among
competitors, while the firm performance might
also be improve by better dealing with green
issues. Therefore, according to the resource-
based view, the manufacturing firms should
look inside of their resources to mitigate
barriers to achieve the competitive advantage
rather finding for a competitive environment.
Integrating sustainability and ecological
modernization into green reverse logistics
practices to gain competitive advantage is
difficult, still facing multiple barriers and
require more research Giunipero, Hooker et al.
[2012].
,
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics
Barriers on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
216
Table 1A. Study categories and variables Construct Barriers References
Infrastructure & technology (ITB) Abdulrahman, Gunasekaran et al. [2014]; Govindan and Bouzon [2018];
Waqas, Dong et al. [2018];
Rameezdeen, Chileshe et al. [2016];
Satapathy [2017]
B1 Lack of modern technology and information system
B2 Lack of logistics infrastructure facilities
B3 Lack of modern technology for waste management and recycling
B4 Poor service quality of local 3PL provider
B5 Lack of a system to monitor return
B6 Lack of enough in-house facilities
B7 Deficiency of road conditions
Financial & economic (FEB) B8 Lack of initial capital
B9 Higher costs of adopting RL
B10 Lack of bank loans to encourage green products/ processes
B11 Uncertainty related to economic issues
B12 Lack of funds for products return monitoring systems
B13 Higher investments and less return-on-Investments
B14 Lack of funds for training
B15 Financial burden of tax
Laws & regulations (LRB) B16 Lack of government supportive policies for RL
B17 Changing regulations due to changing political climate
B18 Lack of regulatory restrictions
B19 Lack of enforceable laws on products return of end-of-life
B20 Lack of environmental laws awareness
B21 Lack of effective environmental measure
B22 Difficulty in identifying environmental opportunities
B23 Lack of international or U.S environmental standards
B24 No specific environmental goals
B25 Lack of community pressure
Knowledge & experience (KEB) B26 Lack of skilled professionals in RL
B27 Lack of awareness about RL practices
B28 Immaturity and low investment in knowledge management
B29 Lack of responsiveness about RL
B30 Wrong forecasting
B31 Lack of taxation knowledge on returned products
B32 Lack of information about RL channels
B33 Lack of waste management practices
Policy (PB) B34 Lack of corporate social responsibility and ethical standards
B35 Companies policies against RL
B36 Lack of clarity regarding sustainability
B37 Limited forecasting and planning in RL
B38 Lack of motivational laws and regulations
B39 Lack of government supportive polices
B40 Misuse of environmental laws
B41 Lack customers awareness about environmental protection
Reverse logistics practices (RLP) Lai, Wu et al. [2013]; Graham, Graham et al. [2018];
Anne, Nicholas et al. [2016]
RLP1 Waste management
RLP2 Design for RL
RLP3 Recycle
RLP4 Reprocess
RLP5 Reuse
RLP6 Material recovery
Firm performance (FP) Ye, Zhao et al. [2013]; Agrawal, Singh et al. [2016];
Huang, Jim Wu et al. [2012]
FP1 Economic performance
FP2 Environmental performance
According to [Kaviani, Tavana et al. 2020]
RL barriers have significant positive impact on
green product innovation and environmental
performance, also influences the depletion of
resources with tight environmental laws.
[Abdullah, Zailani et al. 2016] found that
internal and external barriers to reverse
logistics and supply chain management has
negatively influence on green system
innovation and green product innovation while
technical and knowledge barriers to logistics
and supply chain management have no impact
on adoption green product innovation and
green system innovation. Moreover, according
to [Jabbour, de Sousa Jabbour et al. 2016]
internal barriers have more significant positive
effect on adoption of green operational
practices than external barriers and also
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics Barriers
on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
217
indirectly influenced the firms performance
while green operational practices have direct
association with firm performance in Brazilian
manufacturing industry context.
[Phochanikorn, Tan et al. 2020] empirically
deducted top five barriers in his study to RL
implementation in Thailand palm oil industry
to reduced this industry impact on
environment. [Waqas, Qianli et al. 2020]
examined contextual relationship among 25
barriers of Pakistani manufacturing industry by
applying MICMAC and interpretive structural
modeling (ISM). On one hand, the barriers
associated with RL practices can be recognized
most related approach when developing
sustainability within the firm [Prakash and
Barua 2015]. Moreover, it seems difficult to
understand the barriers restraining the
implementation of RL practices in
manufacturing companies of developing
countries like Pakistan [Govindan and Bouzon
2018]. Although, the researchers have been
discussing barriers, drivers, and motivational
factors, opportunities are still available to
develop the understanding with problems and
issues to adoption of reverse logistics practices
in manufacturing industry of developing
countries specially in Pakistan.
In order to ensure the comprehensive
literature evaluation barriers and drivers to
reverse logistics, these research papers
presented as few as 2 as many as 38 barriers
and drivers [Prakash and Barua 2015]. In this
study, barriers are divided into five main
categories that avoid the adoption of RL
practices, environmental protection, and
sustainability within and outside
manufacturing firms such as infrastructure &
technology, financial & economic, laws &
regulations, knowledge & experience and
policy-related barriers constructs. Table 1A
shows the main factors related to RL practices
concentrate production process at
manufacturing organizations.
Based on above-mentioned categories,
following hypotheses are proposed:
H1- infrastructure & technology barriers
construct negatively effect of adoption of
RL practices
H2- financial & economic barriers construct
negatively effect of adoption of RL
practices
H3- laws & regulations barriers construct
negatively effect of adoption of RL
practices
H4- knowledge & experience barriers
construct negatively effect of adoption of
RL practices
H5- policy barriers construct negatively effect
of adoption of RL practices
Reverse logistics practices and firm performance
Reverse logistics practices promote the
system within organizations to decrease the
environmental problems by introducing
policies and procedures to improve existing
infrastructure and to align it with the
sustainability. Table 1A demonstrates the
notions, factors, and references utilized in
current study to describe RL practices and
measure the firm performance.
The RL practices motivate the sustainable
development and green practices in
organizations. In literature, some recent
researchers discovered a significant
relationship between RL practices and firm
ECP and ENP [Ye, Zhao et al. 2013]. Agrawal,
Singh et al. [2016] uncovered the issues
inducing the implementation of RL activities
considering organizational, environmental and
technical dimensions. It is important to invest
in RL practices and envir onmental practices
for improving sustainable policies and
procedures for developing business
competitive advantages, it would also be
substantial for manufacturing firms to bulit
distinctive position through linking
environmental and quality investment.
Therefore, the integration of green issues in
firm operations are essential to advance the
firm performance. Though, the literature
review has yet to achieve consensus on this
issue. Ye, Zhao et al. [2013] described that,
ecological system management can expand the
firm performance, however, some
environmental practices negatively effect on it.
Huang, Jim Wu et al. [2012] perceived the
adoption of RL practices have a strong positive
,
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics
Barriers on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
218
impact on manufacturing firm performance
and could have some influence from contextual
and external factors. Therefore,
H6- RL practices positively affect ECP.
H7- RL practices positively affect ENP.
Barriers to RL adoption and firm performance
The association between RL practices and
firm performance is still important and
blinking research area [Satapathy 2017]. If
barriers and drivers to RL negatively influence
the RL practices as confirmed by literature, it
also can be considered that barriers and drivers
to RL may have an indirect influence on
manufacturing firm performance. [Jabbour, de
Sousa Jabbour et al. 2016] used green
operational practices as mediator in barriers
performance link in Brazilian manufacturing
companies, however, RL practices adoption
has not been considered as mediator in the
literature of barriers performance link. For
instance, lack of awareness about RL practices
is treated as barrier and driver, it can be
avoided by the exact adoption of RL practice
in advance and accordingly can negatively
effect on RL practices.
Therefore based on above discussion and
literature evidence, we hypothesized that:
H8- infrastructure & technology barriers
construct negatively mediate the ECP
through adoption of RL practices.
H9- financial & economic barriers construct
negatively mediate the ECP through
adoption of RL practices.
H10-laws & regulations barriers construct
negatively mediate the ECP through
adoption of RL practices.
H11- knowledge & experience barriers
construct negatively mediate the ECP
through adoption of RL practices.
H12- policy barriers construct negatively
mediate the ECP through adoption of RL
practices.
Mediating role of RL practices
Abdulrahman, Gunasekaran et al. [2014],
Bouzon, Govindan et al. [2018] studies are
related to barriers and drivers to RL practices
adoption and performance. A very few
researchers have examined the link among
issues to reverse logistics and firm
performance and more research is needed.
Developing the clear association among RL
barriers and performance could help to concern
authorities choose exact practice to avoid
specific barrier and to increase firm
performance [Bouzon, Govindan et al. 2016].
Fig. 1. Conceptual model presented in this study with direct and indirect effect
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics Barriers
on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
219
In developing countries especially in
Pakistan, more research on sustainability and
barriers evaluation are required [Abdulrahman,
Gunasekaran et al. 2014].
Therefore, we hypothesized that:
H13- infrastructure & technology barriers
construct negatively mediate ENP through
adoption of RL practices.
H14- financial & economic barriers construct
negatively mediate ENP through adoption
of RL practices.
H15- laws & regulations barriers construct
negatively mediate ENP through adoption
of RL practices.
H16- knowledge & experience barriers
construct negatively mediate ENP through
adoption of RL practices.
H17- policy barriers construct negatively
mediate ENP through adoption of RL
practices.
Direct hypothesis based on literature are
(H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, and H7) and indirect
hypothesis are (H8, H9, H10, H11, H12, H13,
H14, H15, H16, H17), as mention in section 2
and Figure 1 empirically tested the conceptual
framework of current research.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Definition of constructs measurement
The key determination of current paper is to
test a new conceptual model based on
quantitative research base survey strategy
presented in figure 1. Barriers to RL are
measured into five categories such as:
− Infrastructure & technology barriers construct; this barriers construct contains
the information about barriers related
infrastructure & technology for example
lack of modern technology for waste
management, poor logistics infrastructure,
deficiencies of roads, lack of monitoring
systems for return and poor infrastructure &
technology for development of RL practices
within the country.
− Financial & economic barriers construct; this group of barriers has the information
about barriers and drivers related to
financial & economic obstacles such as
a loan, investment, and adoption cost and
return funding etc.
− Laws & regulation barriers construct; this category including the information about
barriers related to laws & regulations.
− Knowledge & experience barriers construct; this construct refers to the barriers and
drivers related to knowledge & experience
to reverse logistics.
− Policy barriers construct; this barriers construct includes the information about
issues that are related to policy.
41 barriers and drivers are included above
mention five categories presented in Table 1A.
The five-point Likert scale was utilized to
estimate each barrier and driver, ranging from
1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
− RL practices; variables related to RL practices are offered in Table 1A. The five-
point Likert scale was utilized to estimate
each of the item, ranging from 1(not
applied) to 5 (fully applied).
− Firm performance; variables related to firm performance are presented in Table 1A.
Again five-point Likert scale was utilized to
estimate the firm performance variables,
ranging from 1 (much poorer) to 5 (much
improved).
In the end, company size is treated as
a controled variable. Big companies more
actively participate in sustainable practices,
comparatively, they face more pressure from
stakeholder to participate in environmental
activities because big companies are
considered as a trendsetter in their sectors.
Adoption of RL practices has more concern
with bigger companies rather than smaller.
Normally, in four categories the firm size is
measured; micro, small, medium, and large
size firms which based on a number of firm
employees. Micro size firms have 19 workers,
small size firms have 20 to 99 workers,
medium size firms have 100 to 499 and big
companies have 500 or more workers.
According to [Darnall, Henriques et al. 2010]
firm size undeniable fact when discussing
ecological system management and corporate
social responsibility. Therefore, it is
considered as a key variable when discussing
,
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics
Barriers on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
220
organizational problems and barriers, as many
variables were not measured because of
irrelevant to firm size.
Sample size and data collection
Research in the field of SCM can avail the
more authentic results through survey because
the advantage of the survey is to collect
empirical research evidence related to real
world including the perception of knowledge
experts in particular research field.
A comprehensive questionnaire was developed
on behalf of section 3.1. Companies listed with
the securities & exchange commission of
Pakistan (SECP) were preferred from the
manufacturing sector for data collection
including automobile, textile, electronics,
apparel, fertilizer, plastics, and food
manufacturing companies etc. The facilitator
arranged the meetings with potential
respondents like (supply chain expert, business
owner, directors, and managers) to deliver
them the questionnaires and calls were made
for a higher response rate. In total, 1000
questionnaires were distributed among
respondents of relevant companies in Pakistan
during Decembers to May 2018. From the
government side, the data was gathered from
the employees of PAK-EPA and sustainable
development policy institute (SDPI). These
institutes are focal institutes in Pakistan for
successful implementation of NPSW within
the country. Finally, 485 questionnaires were
received back, 19 questionnaires were
eliminated due to missing values, therefore,
466 questionnaires responses were considered
as usable.
DATA ANALYSIS
Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was
applied to verify the hypothesis of conceptual
model on the behalf of empirical data
[Kaufmann and Gaeckler 2015] and AMOS
22.0 (trial version) was used to test indirect
effect because AMOS is very useful to
calculate the multicollinearity problems as well
as some statistical indices.
Delphi method (DM) was used to evaluate
all measures by the group of professionals.
Initially, a meeting was arranged with
professionals on DM procedure [Linstone and
Turoff 1975] to evaluate the weight of
measures to RL. Moreover, the board of
experts including RL professionals, supply
chain supervisors, financial experts, ecological
experts, managerial specialists, social experts,
and supply chain managers from different
manufacturing industry of Pakistan was
requested to participate in decision-making
process. Initially, the pre-defined survey was
filled by professionals independently according
to their best knowledge about measures in
Table 1A. After the completion of this first
iteration, the response was gathered by the
facilitator. According to their first iteration
response, the anonymous summary of results
prepared and again distributed among
professionals for the objective of further
amendment in selected measures list. After
completion of three iteration consensus was
developed among all professional experts,
selecting the final set of barriers to become
quite easy affecting the adoption of RL
practices in Pakistani manufacturing industry.
Table 2. Details of respondents Demographic Count Percentage%
Gender Male 356 76
Female 93 24
Age group 20-35 years 108 23
36-50 years 273 59
>50 years 85 18
Education
Bachelor 246 53
Master 199 43
Ph.D. 21 4
Industry category Automobile industry 45 10
Electronic products
manufacturing
30 6
Textile mills 55 12
Plastic bags manufacturing 25 5
Apparel mills 34 7
Cement manufacturing 20 4
Fertilizer companies 38 8
Beverage companies 49 11
Paper manufacturing 20 4
Rubber and plastics mills 23 5
Food industry 74 16
Lubricants companies 22 5
Government Employees
(PEPA, SDPI)
31 7
Work status Top level 53 11
Middle level 280 60
Low level 133 29
Total 466 100
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics Barriers
on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
221
Finally, the board of expert suggested
deleting following 10 barriers from given five
barriers categories (B4, B7, B10, B12, B17,
B23, B28, B33, B37, and B39) due repetition
and ambiguity. In the end, 39 variables were
considered under eight constructs for defining
the model of study. Initially, Exploratory
Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory
Factor Analysis (CFA) was applied to analyse
reliability and validity instruments. Internal
consistency was measured with Cronbach’s
Alpha outcomes, the findings of Cronbach’s
Alpha were fluctuate between 0.731-0.868 that
verified the inner consistency of each
constructs, and meets the standard criteria.
Reliability of developed scale is supported by
the values of Cronbach’s Alpha.
EFA was implemented to eight constructs
having 39 variables to expose the latent
variables. The keen objective of EFA to check
relationship among observed and latent factors
whether the factors are unknown or uncertain.
In this research, the principle component
analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation was
utilized to apply EFA on 39 variables. EFA
starts with examining the suitability of data,
Bartlett test and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO)
checks sample adequacy. To perform the factor
analysis the value of KMO should be 0.60 or
more. The value of KMO was 0.835 that fulfil
the stated standards and finding of Bartlett test
was X2=3365.453 and P>0.000 which is
showing substantial and satisfactory inter-
correlation. Factor loading of all variables
should be 0.40 or more, commonalities and
cross-factor loading values should be 0.40 or
more criteria. Eigenvalues should be 1 or
more, as finding of EFA showing that all seven
constructs eigenvalues are more than 1 with
73.34% total variance and factor loading
values were ranging between 0.567-0.865 that
meet the given criteria. EFA findings are
shown in Table 3A.
Barriers are arranged according to their
highest factor loading for each category
presented in (Table 3A), infrastructure &
technology construct the barriers with highest
factor loadings are B6>B1>B3>B2>B5.
According to the finding of study lack of
enough in-house facilities (B6), lack of new
technology and information system (B1) and
lack of modern technology for waste
management and recycling are dominant
barriers of the category.
In Financial & economic construct the
barriers with highest factor loadings are
B8>B15>B14>B13>B9>B11 respectively.
Study findings reveal that lack of initial capital
(B8), the financial burden of tax (B15) and
lack of funds for training (B14) are main
barriers of the category.
In law & regulation construct the barriers
B22>B24>B19>B25>B21>B20>B18>18 are
with highest factor loadings. Following three
barriers, difficulty in identifying environmental
opportunities (B22), no specific environmental
goals (B24) and lack of enforceable laws on
products return of EOL (B19) are identified as
most critical barriers of the category.
Knowledge & experience construct the
barriers with biggest factor loading are
B29>B26>B27>B30>B31>B32 respectively.
Lack of responsiveness about RL (B29), lack
of trained professionals in RL (B26) and Lack
of awareness about RL practices (B27) are the
dominant issues of the construct.
In policy construct the barriers are
B38>B36>B34>B41>B35>B40 with their
highest factor loadings. According to results,
Lack of motivational laws and regulations
(B38), lack of clarity regarding sustainability
(B36) and Lack of corporate social
responsibility and ethical standards (B34) have
strong factor loadings.
In the adoption of RL, practices construct
the barriers with highest factor loadings are
RLP44>RLP47>RLP45>RLP42>RLP46>RLP
43 respectively. Results show that recycle
(RLP44), material recovery (RLP47) and
reprocess (RLP45) are the main variables of
the category.
Finally, firm performance variables with
their factor loading are FP48>FP49, economic
performance, and environmental performance.
,
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics
Barriers on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
222
Table 3A. Results of Exploratory Factor Analysis
Constructs Variables Reliability AVE Composite
Reliability 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Infrastructure
&
technology
B1 0.850 0.532 0.890 0.832
B2 0.751
B3 0.820
B5 0.735
B6 0.855
Financial &
economic
B8 0.822 0.575 0.923 0.865
B9 0.705
B11 0.667
B13 0.764
B14 0.832
B15 0.855
Laws &
regulations
B16 0.731 0.602 0.856 0.679
B18 0.767
B19 0.803
B20 0.756
B21 0.790
B22 0.854
B24 0.810
B25 0.798
Knowledge
& experience
B26 0.785 0.566 0.876 0.843
B27 0.820
B29 0.862
B30 0.770
B31 0.746
B32 0.699
Policy B34 0.868 0.643 0.887 0.805
B35 0.730
B36 0.832
B38 0.840
B40 0.680
B41 0.769
RL practices RLP1 0.815 0.510 0.901 0.751
RLP2 0.567
RLP3 0.830
RLP4 0.815
RLP5 0.732
RLP6 0.823
Firm
performance
FP1 0.798 0.530 0.897 0.865
FP2 0.817
Table 4. Correlation and discriminant validity
Latent
variables Mean S. D ITB FEB LRB KEB PB RLP FP
ITB 3.43 1.854 1
FEB 4.17 1.516 0.534** 1
LRB 2.78 1.095 0.335** 0.476** 1
KEB 3.80 1.475 0.498** 0.567** 0.365** 1
PB 2.25 0.902 0.278** 0.326** 0.565** 0.235** 1
RLP 4.68 1.690 0.576** 0.287** 0.271** 0.426** 0.525** 1
FP 2.66 1.076 0.389** 0.384** 0.178** 0.501** 0.213** 0.374** 1
The values of convergent and discriminant
validity are enough good. Convergent validity
proved that the most barriers have better
loadings in the origin of the construct are
presented in Table 3A and table 4 respectively.
Constructs validity was checked by CFA
applying on 39 variables under eight
constructs. CFA is one of significant research
methods of SEM that is largely applied in
supply chain management and RL field to
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics Barriers
on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
223
calculate covariance structure and linear
structural relationship models. When scholars
have limited or inadequate information toward
latent variables, they prefer to utilize this kind
of multivariate research technique to discover
the significant association among variables.
Eight model constructs scrutinized with 39
variables using different model fitness indices.
According to the model findings the values of
squared multiple correlations (SMCs) ranged
between 0.468-0.759 which meets the
recommended criteria. The final findings of
CFA, correlation among variables and model
fitness of the research paper is presented in
tables 5.
Table 5. Model fitness results
Fit indices Statistics Recommended
Criteria
NFI 0.93 >0.90
NNFI 0.92 >0.90
CFI 0.95 >0.90
GFI 0.91 >0.80
AGFI 0.96 >0.80
RMSEA 0.053 >0.08
Source: Hair, Black et al. 2010
Adoption of RL practices, in turn, affect the
firm’s performance (economic and
environmental performance). Moreover,
Economic performance is more focused, than
environmental performance based on factor
loadings values. In term of mediation relations,
Law & regulation and policy barriers
constructs are not tending to be associated
significantly to firm performance.
Path diagram model is presented in figure 1
and table 6 presenting relationships among
variables. Direct and mediated significant
relationships are presented in Tables 6,
considering P-value <0.05 as the standard for
defining the level of significance. On the
behalf of table 6 results, from seventeen
proposed hypotheses, six has been rejected and
eleven has accepted findings are presented in
table 7. Next section explains the results of
hypotheses in details and also discusses.
Table 6. Hypothesis testing
Hypothesis Standard
error P-value Acceptance
Yes/No Infrastructure & technology → adoption of RL practices 0.085 0.000 Yes Financial & economic → adoption of RL practices 0.047 0.000 Yes Law & regulation→ adoption of RL practices 0.126 0.235 No Knowledge & experience → adoption of RL practices 0.034 0.000 Yes Policy → adoption of RL practices 0.099 0.219 No Adoption of RL practices → economic performance 0.087 0.000 Yes Adoption of RL practices → environmental performance 0.053 0.000 Yes Infrastructure & technology → adoption of RL practices → Economic performance 0.087 0.000 Yes Financial & economic → adoption of RL practices → Economic performance 0.065 0.000 Yes Law & regulation → adoption of RL practices → Economic performance 0.115 0.236 No Knowledge & experience → adoption of RL practices → Economic performance 0.043 0.000 Yes Policy → adoption of RL practices → economic performance 0.131 0.237 No Infrastructure & technology → adoption of RL practices → Environmental performance 0.072 0.000 Yes Financial & economic → adoption of RL practices → environmental performance 0.036 0.000 Yes Law & regulation → adoption of RL practices → environmental performance 0.153 0.275 No Knowledge & experience → adoption of RL practices → environmental performance 0.045 0.000 Yes Policy → adoption of RL practices → environmental performance 0.132 0.238 No
,
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics
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224
Table 7. Test of hypotheses results
Hypotheses Results Reasons H1- infrastructure & technology barriers construct negatively effect of adoption of RL
practices (when barriers and drivers will be more than the adoption of RL practices will be
less).
Accepted Beta 0.51; P-value<0.001
H2- financial & economic barriers construct negatively effect of adoption of RL practices
(when barriers and drivers will be more than the adoption of RL practices will be less).
Accepted Beta 0.57; P-value<0.000
H3- laws & regulations barriers construct negatively effect of adoption of RL practices
(when barriers and drivers will be more than the adoption of RL practices will be less).
Rejected Beta 0.057; P-value<0.235
H4- knowledge & experience barriers construct negatively effect of adoption of RL practices
(when barriers and drivers will be more than the adoption of RL practices will be less).
Accepted Beta 0.51; P-value<0.000
H5- policy barriers construct negatively effect of adoption of RL practices (when barriers
and drivers will be more than the adoption of RL practices will be less).
Rejected Beta 0.68; P-value<0.219
H6- RL practices positively affect economic performance. Accepted Beta 0.83; P-value<0.001
H7- RL practices positively affect environmental performance. Accepted Beta 0.55; P-value<0.001
H8- infrastructure & technology barriers construct negatively mediate economic
performance.
Accepted Beta 0.51; P-value<0.000
H9- financial & economic barriers construct negatively mediate economic performance. Accepted Beta 0.55; p-value<0.001
H10-laws & regulations barriers construct negatively mediate economic performance. Rejected Beta 0.042; P-value<0.236
H11- knowledge & experience barriers construct negatively mediate economic performance. Accepted Beta 0.85; P-value<0.000
H12- policy barriers construct negatively mediate economic performance. Rejected Beta 0.058; P-value<0.237
H13- infrastructure & technology barriers construct negatively mediate environmental
performance.
Accepted Beta 0.68; P-value<0.000
H14- financial & economic barriers construct negatively mediate environmental
performance.
Accepted Beta 0.75; P-value<0.001
H15- laws & regulations barriers construct negatively mediate environmental performance. Rejected Beta 0.044; P-value<0.275
H16- knowledge & experience barriers construct negatively mediate environmental
performance.
Accepted Beta 0.85; P-value0.001
H17- policy barriers construct negatively mediate environmental performance. Rejected Beta 0.074; P-value<0.238
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
According to the finding of study
infrastructure & technology, financial &
economic and knowledge & experience
barriers constructs are more relevant to
adoption RL practices than law & regulation
and policy barriers constructs. Finding proves
that if firms need to achieve distinctive
advantages as recommended by the resource-
based view of firms, they need to deal with
above mention three barriers constructs
concentrate on growing level of green
awareness among top management by
introducing enough green training program.
Our study suggests that simple publications on
NPSW are not enough to encourage
sustainability in the manufacturing industry of
Pakistan. It is the duty of government
proposing, assigning and producing sustainable
knowledge among all size of companies.
Therefore, the organizations must develop the
connection between environmental
modernization problems and natural resource-
based view to overcoming above-mentioned
barriers constructs to upgrade the performance
of firms.
The finding of the study framework proved
that the firm size has no important effect on
ECP and ENP. Therefore, companies of
different sizes have confronted different
barriers in the same way, because of the
presence of barriers in the similar scenario, i.e.
Pakistan. Current study adds to addressing
existing literature and confirm that bigger
companies have good resources to manage
their sustainability and ecological management
as compared to smaller companies. This study
confirmed that higher performance does not
depend on company size, thus, small
companies also can adopt RL practices for
developing sustainability.
When verifying hypotheses of study, out of
seventeen hypotheses, eleven were accepted
and six were rejected. H1-infrastructure &
technology barriers construct negatively affect
the adoption of RL practices. In simple words,
stronger the barriers to infrastructure &
technology construct resulted in a lower
tendency for adopting RL practices. Because
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics Barriers
on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
225
Pakistan under developing country, therefore,
there is a lack of new technology and logistics
infrastructure facilities to managing the solid
waste and the monitor return. H2-financial &
economic barriers construct negatively affected
the adoption of RL practices. Presence of
financial & economic barriers also resulted in a
lower tendency for the adoption of RL
practices. A very few companies in
manufacturing industry of Pakistan have
operational RL department and they allocate
budget for it. Therefore, Pakistani
manufacturing firms need financial assistance
to establish reverse logistics infrastructure and
to overcome major impeding barriers. H3-law
& regulation barriers construct negatively
affect the adoption of RL practices but don’t
have a significant association to the adoption
of RL practices. Because Pakistan is
independent in the field of laws and regulation,
every kind of laws are available in the
constitution of Pakistan related to every field
but unfortunately, there has no proper
implementation. H4-knowledge & experience
construct barriers are also negatively correlated
with the adoption of RL practices. More the
knowledge and experience barriers lead, the
adoption of RL practices is less. Education
institutes in the country are failed to cope with
the expectations of industry in the field of
reverse logistics. However, Pakistani
companies are struggling to spend on
recruiting experienced and foreign technical
experts in the related field. In some cities of
Pakistan, foreigner skilled professional
demand security for providing their services,
sometimes companies face difficulties to
arrange proper security for them. H5-policy
barriers construct is negatively affecting the
adoption of RL practices but had no significant
association to the adoption of RL practices
H6 and H7 proposed a significant positive
association among adoption of RL practices
and ECP and ENP of Pakistani manufacturing
firm’s. implementation of RL practices in
manufacturing industry create an important
role in environmental degradation and
improving environmental quality. Along with
environmental sustainability, RL is packed
with multiple economic benefits as it develops
an infrastructure for products recycling and
solid waste management which improves an
organisation’s productivity and ECP
performance.
This research also contributes to analyzing
the mediating effect of RL practices adoption.
Results found that (H8, H9, and H11)
infrastructure & technology, financial &
economic and knowledge & experience
barriers construct respectively to reverse
logistics adoption have an indirect negative
effect on firm’s economic performance
through RL practices adoption. Thus, firms
tending to improve economic performance
should not only consider RL practices adoption
but should also deal with above mentioned
three barriers constructs to RL. (H10 and H12)
law & regulation and policy barriers construct
respectively to RL adoption also have
a negative indirect impact on firm’s ECP
through adoption of RL practices, as results
found, these two hypotheses do not have
a significant effect on ECP.
The mediation analysis also found that
(H13, H14, and H16) infrastructure &
technology, financial & economic and
knowledge & experience barriers construct
respectively to reverse logistics adoption have
an indirect negative impact on firm’s ENP
through RL practices adoption. Therefore,
results found that the existence of above-
mentioned three categories barriers is
impeding the firm’s environmental
performance. Companies should take
remediation actions to eradicates these barriers
during their operations. (H15 and H17) law &
regulation and policy barriers construct
respectively to RL adoption also have
a negative indirect impact on firm’s ENP
through adoption of RL practices, as results
found, these two hypotheses do not have
a significant effect on ENP. Supporting
mediating relationships provide more insights
into the implementation of RL in Pakistan. It is
one of the key theoretical contributions of the
current article is to check the mediating role of
RL practices in the barriers-implementation
relationship.
Study findings proved that infrastructure &
technology, financial & economic and
knowledge & experience barriers constructs
are more significant to manage the
,
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics
Barriers on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
226
sustainability at the time of adoption RL
practices and their implications for firm’s
economic and environmental performance. As
previous studies in literature indicate that
infrastructure & technology, financial &
economic and knowledge & experience
barriers categories are more significant to
sustainable development and adoption of RL
practices as compared to law & regulation and
policy barriers constructs is confirmed by
[Abdulrahman, Gunasekaran et al. 2014,
Bouzon, Govindan et al. 2016]. Therefore,
organization top management, when willing to
adopt RL practices for the enhancement of
firm’s ECP and ENP, firstly should deal with
infrastructure & technology, financial &
economic and knowledge & experience
barriers constructs because these three barriers
constructs should be eradicated at the initial
level for effective implementation of RL
practices [Govindan, Kaliyan et al. 2014].
Managers and directors should develop the
solid understanding of barriers to prioritize
them according to their rank for the purpose of
better utilization of the firm’s resources.
Lastly, evaluating each barriers category,
law & regulation and policy barriers categories
containing the barriers related to
environmental legislation and environmental
modernization initiative will work only when
infrastructure & technology, financial &
economic and knowledge & experience related
barriers should be mitigated first and the
attention should be paid by upper management
to create awareness on sustainability problems
and conduct proper training system within
organizations as expressed through literature
[Rameezdeen, Chileshe et al. 2016];
[Satapathy 2017]. RL practices, the focus
should be paid toward the production process
and the selection of environmental friendly
suppliers [Wong, Lai et al. 2012]. Selection of
green supplier the results has been emphasized
by literature [Genovese, Lenny Koh et al.
2013]. In term of firm’s performance, it is
compulsory to reduce the waste generation and
hazardous/toxic materials because of
environmental modernization in Pakistan is
enforcing eradication of waste due to NPSW.
CONCLUSIONS
This research advances the knowledge of
environmental and sustainability management
in RL practices to enhance the manufacturing
industry performance. The key purpose of
current research is to validate the direct and
indirect association among different barriers
constructs (infrastructure &technology,
financial & economic, laws & regulations,
knowledge & experience and policy) and
explore the adoption of RL practices and
firm’s performance (economic and
environmental) on the behalf of data collected
from Pakistani manufacturing industry.
Following are the key conclusions based on
study findings and implications:
Infrastructure & technology, financial &
economic and knowledge & experience related
barriers are more significant than laws &
regulations and policy related barriers during
the adoption of RL practices and these
practices help to increase firm’s ECP and ENP.
The results of this research help to extend
literature review presenting that the ecological
modernization and new environmental laws
and regulation should be integrated with
enterprises to mitigate infrastructure &
technology, financial & economic and
knowledge & experience related barriers by
conducting proper training programs and
promoting sustainability and environmental
protection among company’s top management.
Universities and different Pakistani
manufacturing associations (PMA) can create
the partnership to consider and promote this
process. Companies looking forward to
creating company competitive advantages can
upgrade the firm’s ECP and ENP through the
adoption of RL practices in promoting the
greening manufacturing processes. Without
considering the firm’s size, a strong
understanding should develop with barriers to
RL will important to move forward the
Pakistani manufacturing industry toward
greening production in a timely manner.
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics Barriers
on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
227
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTION
This research has a substantial contribution
to the adoption of RL practices in the
manufacturing industry of developing
republics, as it has included the barriers to RL
from an international context. Furthermore,
current research also contains the managerial
implications, particularly for Pakistani
manufacturing context, as the selection of main
barriers by the team of professionals from the
manufacturing industry and scholars in
Pakistan. However, the finding of this
research might be beneficial for manufacturing
industries situated in the rest of developing
economies. The findings might be beneficial
for the adoption of RL practices in India,
China and Iran, which are the most emerging
economies of the region.
Internationally, there are a lot of issues
related to waste management that is alarming
the ecological system of the world and now,
these issues must be considered by scholars.
A considerable portion of EOL products are
incinerated or untreated that is polluting the
environment. To reduce the impact of used
products, the companies must activate the RL
operations in their manufacturing system to put
used products at the proper destination. For
this, the companies must highlight the barriers
to RL and deal with them at priority basis.
Better knowledge on barriers to RL make easy
the adoption of RL practices that encourage the
product return and product recycling
management help to realize the manufacturers
to realize their corporate social responsibility
toward environmental protection. Moreover,
the identification of critical barriers, as well as
having the information about factors affecting
them or being affected by them, might be
helpful for concern authorities and decision
makers.
This research is related to manufacturing
industry interested in adoption of RL practices
for Pakistani context and prioritize the barriers
to RL in different categories in way of
adoption of RL practices. It might useful for
industrial managers to eliminate the most
critical barriers to RL at priority basis at the
time of the adoption of RL practices. It can
also guide the policy makers to enhance the
usage of resources by the adoption of RL
practices.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND FUNDING SOURCE DECLARATION
There is no information for this research of
obtaining any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-
profit sectors.
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WPŁYW OGRANICZEŃ LOGISTYKI ZWROTNEJ NA ROZWÓJ ZRÓWNOWAŻONY PRZEDSIĘBIORSTWA
STRESZCZENIE. Wstęp: Wskutek wzrastającego rozwoju przemysłowego i intensyfikacji produkcji, zużywa się coraz więcej surowców, co z kolei wpływa na stan środowiska. Logistyki zwrotna (RL) to koncepcja dobrze rozwinięta w
krajach rozwiniętych w stosunku do krajów rozwijających się. Wdrożenie logistyki zwrotnej jest w swojej początkowej
fazie ze względu na wiele czynników ograniczających i utrudniających jej wprowadzenie. Celem pracy jest identyfikacji
barier wpływających na logistykę zwrotną poprzez przegląd literatury oraz sprawdzenie wpływu tych czynników na
wdrażanie praktyk logistyki zwrotnej jak również sprawdzenie czy mają one wpływ na działalność przedsiębiorstwa czy
nie.
Metody: Dane do badania zostały zebrane od pracowników przedsiębiorstw produkcyjnych oraz odpowiednich instytucji rządowych i poddane analizie przy zastosowaniu metody modelowania równania strukturalnego. Nowatorski model
strukturalny uwzględnia w sobie wszystkie analizowane zmienne w celu oceny wpływu barier logistyki zwrotnej na
rozwój zrównoważony przedsiębiorstwa.
Wyniki: Badanie wykazuje, że czynniki: Infrastruktura i technologia, Finanse i ekonomia, Wiedza i doświadczenie, są czynnikami krytycznymi i mają negatywny wpływ na zaadoptowanie praktyk logistyki zwrotnej. Wdrożenie praktyk
logistyki zwrotnej ma pozytywny efekt na działalność ekonomiczną i środowiskową przedsiębiorstwa.
,
Waqas M., Honggang X., Khan S.A.R., Ahmad N., Ullah Z., Iqbal M., 2020. Impact of Reverse Logistics
Barriers on Sustainable Firm Performance via Reverse Logistics Practices. LogForum 17 (2), 213-230. http://doi.org/10.17270/J.LOG.2021.583
230
Wnioski: Osiągnięte rezultaty pozwalają na poszerzenie dostępnej literatury, pokazując, że modernizacja ekologiczna oraz nowe prawodawstwa związane z ochroną środowiska powinno być zintegrowane w przedsiębiorstwie w celu
zniwelowania barier związanych z czynnikami z grup Infrastruktura i technologia, Finanse i ekonomia, Wiedza
i doświadczenie poprzez odpowiednio szkolenia oraz przez promowanie rozwoju zrównoważonego wśród szczebla
najwyższego kierownictwa przedsiębiorstw.
Słowa kluczowe: rozwój zrównoważony, wdrożenie logistyki zwrotnej, ograniczenia, przedsiębiorstwa produkcyjne, Pakistan
Muhammad Waqas
School of Economics and Finance
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China email: [email protected]
Xue Honggang
School of Economics and Finance
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China email: [email protected]
Syed Abdul Rehman Khan
School of Management
Xuzhou University of Technology
Xuzhou, China School of Economic and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China email: [email protected]
Naveed Ahmad
School of Management
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China email: [email protected]
Zia Ullah
Department of Business Administration
Lahore Leads University, Lahore, Pakistan email: [email protected]
Muzaffar Iqbal
School of Economics and Management
Tianjin University, Tanjian, China email: [email protected]
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