Managing the return flow of product is increasingly recognized as a strategically important activity that is cross-functional within and across firms. We employ the theoretical grounding of a customer value and service-dominant logic perspective to examine such business relationship activity.

In order to explore the phenomenon of returns management across a multi-disciplinary, managerial spectrum, a qualitative research methodology was chosen to generate depth of understanding given the current limited understanding of the research topic. Our results suggest that functional integration can lead to better corporate resource utilization as well as create higher levels of both firm and customer value. We also found the external business environment to be important in how a firm creates such value.