Atomic models of closed-loop supply chain in e-business environment

Sustainability has become an important issue for companies and countries in the 21st century. Several nations have mandated stringent laws for 'product take back' when the product's useful life ends, forcing companies to respond with product redesign, changes in packaging and creative solutions to the problem of product recovery. The driving power for this is also associated with the realisation of the potential value that can be regained from reusing products, parts or materials. With e-commerce expansion, returns-related costs for companies have become more prominent because e-firms have higher return rates than their traditional counterparts. So it is beneficial to form closed-loop supply chains by integrating forward supply chains with reverse supply chains and analysing these in detail. This paper suggests five different atomic models of closed-loop supply chains. After analysing and comparing, we obtain some interesting conclusions which can be instructive to the practitioner.