Return policy model of supply chain management for single-period products

A return policy is one of the major issues in supply chain management, particularly for managing single-period products that are characterized with short sales period and little salvage value. The value of the buyback price is important to ensure a stable supply chain. The role of the risk attitude of the retailer and supplier is also known as an essential factor to the decision in determining a return policy. In this paper, we present the result of our investigation into this problem. The aim of our work is to develop a model to determine optimal return policies for single-period products based on uncertain market demands and in the presence of risk preferences. The impact of the wholesale price and selling price is also investigated to determine the optimal order quantities and optimal buyback price for different types of risk attitudes. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2006.