Reverse Logistics Practices: A Dilemma to Gain Competitive Advantage in Manufacturing Industries of Pakistan with Organization Performance as a Mediator

Khawar Ahmed Khan (), Fei Ma (), Muhammad Ali Akbar, Mohammad Shariful Islam, Maryam Ali and Shaif Noor
Additional contact information
Khawar Ahmed Khan: Logistics Engineering & Management, School of Economics & Management, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Fei Ma: Logistics Engineering & Management, School of Economics & Management, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Muhammad Ali Akbar: School of International Exchange, Shandong Management University, Jinan 250100, China
Mohammad Shariful Islam: Department of Business Administration, Bangladesh Army International University of Science and Technology, Cumilla 3501, Bangladesh
Maryam Ali: Logistics Engineering & Management, School of Economics & Management, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China
Shaif Noor: Logistics Engineering & Management, School of Economics & Management, Chang’an University, Xi’an 710064, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: Reverse logistics is a known supply chain practice and has been proven effective in recent decades. In developing countries, these practices are already employed and considered beneficial for the business or firms. The reverse logistics concept creates value for customers and firms. Considering this, this study intends to highlight reverse logistics practices in Pakistan and examine the reverse logistics impacts on competitive advantage with the mediating role of the firm’s organizational performance in Pakistan’s manufacturing industries. In this study, plastic bottle manufacturing firms working in Pakistan were selected to collect the data. Hence, to collect the data from these firms, a survey technique was sought to determine the impact of reverse logistic practices on competitive advantage with the mediating role of organizational performance. A structured and adapted questionnaire was used in this regard. Organizational performance was assumed as the operational and financial performance of these firms. Data were collected using a convenience sampling technique, and the targeted population was the middle-level employees of bottle manufacturing firms. The statistical tool was adopted as the study was quantitative, and results were extracted numerically. IBM SPSS and AMOS version 24 were used as supporting statistical analysis and interpretation tools. Data analysis demonstrated that out of 219 respondents, 68 were supervisors, and others were middle managers. Statistics show that most females were supervisors, and most males were middle managers. “Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)” was performed to examine the fit of the three-factor model, showing good fit indices (Chi-square/df = 2.71, CFI = 0.902, TLI = 0.896, RMSEA = 0.081), which indicates that the model fits the data well. According to the study’s findings, a significant impact was examined between reverse logistics and competitive advantage, and a mediating role was confirmed between those variables. This study poses unique strengths in theoretical and practical ways and helped enrich the available literature and findings.

Keywords: reverse logistics; organizational performance; operational performance; financial performance; competitive advantage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/8/3223/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/8/3223/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:8:p:3223-:d:1374383

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().