Management Practice Insights
DOI: 10.59571/mpi.v4i2.10
Year: 2026, Volume: 4, Issue: 2, Pages: 134-140
Original Article
Nilendra Singh Pawari* , Ashita Darai
iS.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research
*Corresponding author
Email: [email protected]
Received Date:31 August 2025, Accepted Date:05 March 2026, Published Date:30 September 2026
The circular economy has evolved from an aspirational slogan of ‘reduce-reuse-recycle’ to a driver of value. While supply chain managers and heads of sustainability initiatives have begun using techniques such as ‘closing the loop’ through recycling and ‘slowing the loop’ by extending product life, a key execution gap remains. Conventional supply chain moves in one direction: procure make sell. However, circular business models introduce complexity due to the reverse flow, the return journey of the products sold: sell use return/collect refurbish resell. This complexity stems from the uncertainty in the timing, quantity, and quality of returns, which overwhelms human decision-making. Recent Research by Sergey Naumov, Saurabh Bansal, and V. Daniel R. Guide reveals that even experienced managers succumb to ‘Supply Line Neglect’.1 If managers neglect the complexity of this reverse flow due to behavioural bias that causes them to overlook inventory already moving through reverse channels and over-order new stock to avoid perceived shortages, it could result in operating costs rising 300% to 700% above optimal benchmarks. The good news is that the research also uncovers strategies to mitigate this threat. For instance, decouple the uncertainty of the quality of returned products from the logistics planning. We unpack this strategy and other approaches to help de-risk a company’s sustainability logistics
1 “Managerial Efficiency and Reverse-Flow Complexity in a Circular Economy,” Journal of Operations Management 71, no. 8 (2025): 1115–1142, https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.70010
2 Circle Economy, “Global Circularity Rate Fell to 6.9%—Despite Growing Recycling,” 13 May 2025, https://circularitygap. world/updates-collection/global-circularity-rate-fell-to-6- 9---despite-growing-recycling.
3 Accenture Strategy, Winning the Consumers of the Future with the Circular Economy (New York: Accenture Strategy, 2021), https://www.accenture.com/content/dam/accenture/final/acom- migration/r3-3/pdf/pdf-169/accenture-winning-withcircular- economy.pdf.
4 Naumov, Bansal, and Guide, “Managerial Efficiency and Reverse- Flow Complexity.”
5 Samsung Electronics, “Circular Economy”. https://www.samsung.com/global/sustainability/planet/circula r-economy/.
6 Reuz Editorial Team, “Phone Depreciation in India 2026 – Brand-by-Brand Guide & When to Sell for Maximum Cash,” 30 March 2026, https://www.reuz.in/articles/phonedepreciation- india-2026-brand-guide-when-to-sell.
7 Attero Recycling, “India’s Battery Recycling & Critical Minerals Update,” 5 January 2026, https://www.attero.in/blog/atterobrief- india-battery-recycling-critical-minerals.
8 PTI, “Attero Aims to Double Revenue to Rs 2,000 Crores in Fiscal 2026,” The Economic Times, 19 January 2026, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/indlgoods/ svs/engineering/attero-aims-to-double-revenue-to-rs- 2000-crores-in-fiscal-2026/articleshow/126673666.cms.
9 Tata Motors Limited, Business Responsibility & Sustainability Report (2025), https://www.tatamotors.com/annual-reports/. Sergey Naumov, Saurabh Bansal, and V. Daniel R. Guide Jr.,
10 Glencore, “Li-Cycle”. https://www.glencore.com/what-wedo/ recycling/li-cycle.
11 Renault Group, “The Future Is NEUTRAL Strengthens Its Coverage of the Circular Economy Value Chain,” 5 December 2023, https://media.renaultgroup.com/the-future-is-neutralstrengthens- its-coverage-of-the-circular-economy-valuechain/? lang=fra.
12 Renault Group, “The Future Is NEUTRAL: The Circular Economy Is Stepping into a New Era!,” 18 October 2022, https://media.renaultgroup.com/the-future-is-neutral-thecircular- economy-is-stepping-into-a-new-era/?lang=fra.
13 Caterpillar Inc., “Caterpillar's Circular Economy,” 20 September 2025, https://www.caterpillar.com/en/company/sustainability/rema nufacturing.html.
14 Tata Motors Limited, Growing Responsibly: 79th Integrated Annual Report 2023–24 (2024), https://www.tatamotors.com/wpcontent/ uploads/2024/05/tata-motor-IAR-2023-24.pdf.
15 Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., Annual Report 2023–24 (2024), https://www.mahindra.com/sites/default/files/2024-06/MMAnnual- Report-2023-24.pdf.
16 Attero Recycling, “Lithium Recycling’s Role in India’s Clean Energy Shift,” https://www.attero.in/blog/lithium-recyclingkey- to-indias-battery-independence.
17 Aditya Ambadipudi, Alexander Brotschi, Markus Forsgren, Florent Kervazo, Hugues Lavandier, and James Xing, “Industrial Aftermarket Services: Growing the Core,” McKinsey & Company, 27 July 2017, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/industrials/ourinsights/ industrial-aftermarket-services-growing-the-core
© 2026 Published by SPJIMR. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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