An examination of competitive strategy in buyer-supplier relationships for remanufacturing

This study aims to test a theoretical framework from relational rents (involving relational specific assets, knowledge sharing routines, complementary resources and capabilities and effective governance) that examines buyer-supplier relationships availability remanufacturing operations. Such characteristics are embedded in the Relational View perspective. Despite the economic, environmental and social benefits, remanufacturing is associated concomitantly with many challenges related to the cores remains under explored and add conflicting and dispute perspectives. Remanufacturing has multiple barriers that must be understood and addressed. In order to contribute to this discussion, this manuscript addresses how relational rents occur in remanufacturing within their competitive strategy in the buyer-supplier relationships. The findings showed no found evidence of obtaining competitive advantages clearly delineated by creating relational rents through the contributions of the specific alliance partners and collaborative relationships, but it was possible to highlight the incremental value that comes from individual efforts of each company. The results contribute to both the literature of remanufacturing, and closed-loop supply chains and relational view. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. part of Springer Nature.