Internal supply-chain competition in remanufacturing: operations strategies, performance and environmental effects

This paper investigates the competitive and environmental effects of different operations strategies of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and semi‐independent remanufacturers, which simultaneously cooperate and compete in different stages of a closed‐loop supply chain. In particular, a co‐opetitive situation, in which remanufacturing is undertaken only by retailers while the OEMs' role is restricted to recycling is considered. After adopting a resource‐based perspective of competition, investigations are accomplished using system dynamics simulation modelling. The results of simulations indicate that, in the long run, OEMs, regardless of the operation strategy they adopt, are unable to (re)capture the market gained by the remanufacturers. However, some of these strategies contribute to the improvement of the environmental performance of the entire supply chain.