earticle

영어

The consumption of electronic products has increased significantly in recent years with improved living standards and consumer purchasing power. As a result, the number of discarded electronic products is also increasing day by day. On the one hand, discarded electronic products contain many harmful substances. If they are not handled or handled improperly, they will easily pollute the ecological environment. On the other hand, discarded electronic products also contain a great number of useful materials including silver, gold, copper, and others. If they are recycled and processed reasonably, they will have a high reuse value. Many countries are facing the problem of improper disposal of e-waste. Even in countries that have formal e-waste management systems in place, collection and recycling rates are still low. Therefore, there is an urgent need for research on the reverse logistics in electronic waste (e-waste) products. This study aims to clarify the factors determining e-waste reverse logistics (RL) implementation and explore how implementation of e-waste RL impacts a firm’s performance. Based on a review of literature, we adopt a conceptual model showing the relationship among resource commitment, legislation, public awareness, inter-firm cooperation, implementation of e-waste RL, and firm performance. To test our hypotheses, we collected survey data from Chinese electronics companies. The results of our analysis showed that improving resource commitment, relevant legislations, and inter-firm cooperation can increase the efficiency of e-waste RL implementation, which in turn can improve a firm’s economic, environmental, and social performance. However, legislations, public awareness, and professional recycling infrastructure for e-waste RL implementation are still insufficient in many developing nations, including China, resulting in low efficiency. This study offers important insights into how firm performance can be improved by implementing e-waste RL. It also offers relevant suggestions, such as improving legislations, detailing subsidies, increasing consumer participation, encouraging inter-firm cooperation, and information-sharing to integrate resources and encourage electronic product manufacturers to innovate and strengthen ecological design.