Motivations and profits of the reverse logistics activities

The growing social concern about the environment makes the reverse logistics activities to become the focus of numerous businesses opportunities. The present study tries to identify which are the most important motivations and the profits obtained by the firms which implement reverse logistics activities. To corroborate this, an empirical study was carried out in the Spanish auxiliary automotive industry obtaining that the profits are possible to classify in two big groups: economical and ecological profits. A 'green' image has become an important marketing element. This development has stimulated a number of companies to explore options for take-back and recovery of their products. Overhauled products may be used as spares or sold on secondary markets while requiring only a small fraction of the original production costs for repair so this is and important economical profits. It has been used EQS as software tool in order to verify the considered hypothesis.