BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT: ITS RELATION TO REVERSE LOGISTICS PRACTICES IN CZECH COMPANIES

Current body of research presents many factors, which influence the performance of reverse logistic; however the attention payed to the different factors, as demonstrated by number of existing research papers, varies very much. Process management, its tools and its maturity level belong to the group that is under-researched. The analysis presented in the paper is based on cluster analysis, which integrates several variables reflecting process management practices. Three groups of companies built upon the empirical data from Czech firms are then compared in terms of managerial approach to (and views on) reverse flows. The contribution of the text lies in the exploration of the differences in companies that utilize process management more and less intensively. In this respect the paper demonstrate that (1) business process management is related to perceived effectiveness of reverse logistics and (2) it provides an insight into the causal mechanism of this relationship.