Management of remanufacturing - strategic challenges from intellectual property rights

Maria Elo and Tuomo Kareila

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2014, vol. 28, issue 4/5/6, 306-335

Abstract: Remanufacturing is a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to virgin material-based manufacturing processes. A product is disassembled, cleaned, repaired and reassembled to function as new, which links to end-of-life strategies. Considered to be the ultimate form of recycling and a source of new international business opportunities, the concept involves not only manufacturing and technological challenges but also managerial and strategic challenges due to complexity and intellectual property rights (IPR) implications. Remanufacturing is often embedded in a web of international activities interlinked across various legal domains, creating ambiguity for IPR. This study is the first to assess IPR implications regarding strategic management of remanufacturing, especially from a global perspective. It combines a meta-analysis of court decisions with qualitative analysis of expert interviews, providing an analytical framework for management challenges related to remanufacturing strategy, operations and IPR. The study contributes a remanufacturer typology and implications for operations and marketing, and provides a conceptual tool for management.

Keywords: remanufacturing; manufacturing management; intellectual property rights; IPR; strategic management; automotive parts; recycling; court decisions; manufacturing strategy; automotive components. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=66706 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:ids:ijmtma:v:28:y:2014:i:4/5/6:p:306-335

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().