Giada La Scalia

Purpose: This study investigates the main barriers affecting return management (RM) in e-commerce, where the rapid growth in product returns, further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has made reverse logistics an increasingly complex managerial challenge. The study aims to develop a decision-support framework that promotes a strategic and innovation-driven approach to RM, enabling firms to mitigate the negative impacts of product. The empirical context refers to a multi-category e-commerce company handling a broad assortment of products. The research also seeks to prioritize innovative managerial strategies that balance two key objectives: maximizing customer satisfaction and reducing return-related costs. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework to support RM decisions in a multi-category e-commerce context. The framework consists of three main steps. First, an integrated AHP-TOPSIS procedure is used to identify and prioritize the barriers and sub-barriers affecting reverse logistics, and to rank alternative RM strategies. Second, Pareto analysis is used to identify non-dominated strategies, namely those representing efficient trade-offs between customer satisfaction and return-cost reduction. Finally, the VIKOR method is applied to assess the robustness of the resulting strategy rankings under different decision-making preferences. Findings: The results reveal the relative importance of operational, organizational, and customer-related barriers in e-commerce reverse logistics, highlighting key areas for innovation. The study also provides a prioritized set of managerial strategies capable of improving RM performance while balancing cost reduction and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, Pareto analysis identifies efficient trade-offs among alternative strategies, while VIKOR confirms the robustness of the strategy rankings under different decision-making logics. These findings offer decision-makers reliable insights for enhancing reverse logistics and developing more effective, and innovation-oriented RM practices. Originality/value: This study contributes to the RM literature by proposing an integrated and structured framework, that combines behavioural and operational barriers within a unified and innovation-oriented decision model. It advances prior research by explicitly modelling RM as a dual-objective problem, distinguishing between customer satisfaction and return cost reduction. The use of a multi-category e-commerce context further illustrates the applicability of the framework across different product categories and e-commerce companies. The integration of AHP-TOPSIS with Pareto analysis and VIKOR extends existing MCDM applications by enabling the identification of efficient trade-offs and the assessment of strategy ranking stability under different decision-making preferences.

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) represents a key strategy within the Circular Economy (CE) paradigm, enabling firms located near enhance competitiveness through the collective exchange and valorisation of resources. By fostering the reuse of water, energy, and materials, IS contributes to the sustainable optimization of manufacturing processes. Nevertheless, the implementation of IS, as a distinct business model, requires the active collaboration of heterogeneous stakeholders, which often generates critical challenges in aligning interests and achieving equitable benefits. This study explores an innovative approach to agri-food symbiosis by evaluating the incorporation of Olive Oil Mill Wastewater (OOMW), a by-product of olive oil production, into bread formulations. This strategy not only mitigates the environmental burden associated with OOMW disposal but also promotes resource efficiency within the olive oil supply chain. Bread samples were produced by varying the concentration of OOMW, and each formulation was assessed according to quality characteristics, consumer acceptability parameters, and sustainability aspects. The selection of the best-performing formulation was conducted through a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) framework, specifically applying the VIKOR method. The findings highlight how the integration of OOMW into bread production can generate a dual benefit, improving food quality while advancing sustainable practices in both the olive oil and bakery sectors.

The accreditation of university academic programs is a critical process in ensuring the quality and standards of higher education. A significant component of this process is the assignment of reference lecturers who make these academic programs sustainable. The problem of determining the appropriate faculty members to accredit university academic programs is a multifaceted challenge. The selection of reference lecturers for accreditation is influenced by various factors, including their academic positions, the subject area of their sectors according to the bachelor’s or master’s degree in which they are delivered, and the number of students enrolled compared to the degree classes. Moreover, the evolving nature of higher education, given its increased emphasis on interdisciplinary topics, further complicates this assessment due also to the presence of professors or researchers coming from other departments. The development of an optimization algorithm capable of simultaneously considering all the constraints of the problem is therefore needed to address these challenges and achieve to a balanced approach for a sustainable didactic offer. The optimization algorithm works by maximizing the number of lecturers available as reference lecturers for other departments and minimizing those needed from other departments and from external teaching contracts. The problem of reference lecturers does not refer to the department alone but to the entire atheneum.