Third-party reverse logistics service provider selection approaches and criteria: A literature review

Although selection of third-party reverse logistics service providers (TPRLSP) is considered as a strategic decision of firms and the number of papers regarding their selection is increasing, a review about aspects associated with TPRLSP selection is lacking. The aim of this paper is to review the existing literature of approaches and criteria for TPRLSP selection. Content analysis method is applied to examine 50 articles published from 2002 to 2019 to answer two following questions: 1) Which selection approaches are prevalently applied?; 2) Which selection criteria are popular? The results indicate that the most prevalent integrated approach is that of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with individual methods. Additionally, the most widely used individual approach is data envelopment analysis. In terms of criteria, it is found that organisational performance is the most commonly utilised criterion for evaluating TPRLSPs. Based on discussion of the results and further analysis, future directions are proposed.