Implementing sustainable remanufacturing practices in the white goods sector

Remanufacturing is a life-cycle renewal process recognised as one of the most effective circular strategies that can be adopted to achieve sustainable production. However, its great potential has so far been hindered by the absence of operational, technological, and strategic perspectives to guide the effective implementation of remanufacturing practices within mature and complex industries that produce highly-polluting waste. To fill this gap, an in-depth longitudinal case study was conducted on how remanufacturing practices can be effectively implemented in the white goods sector. The obtained evidence allows new ground to be broken by distilling three mechanisms through which a leading white goods parts distribution company was able to innovate its business model through a successful remanufacturing project. In particular, the study shows how resequencing business processes (operational perspective), blending physical and digital realities (technological perspective), and transferring risks in the supply-chain (strategic perspective) can lead to an effective implementation of remanufacturing practices and enable business model innovation in a circular economy perspective. The study contributes to the literature on circular economy and the circular business model and provides important implications on how to create new growth opportunities by including social, environmental, and financial factors as underlying categories.