Analysis of conditions for the diffusion of remanufactured products by using a market model

Abstract

Although remanufacturing is an important life cycle option for increasing resource efficiency and realizing circular economy, it cannot achieve enough market share in many developing countries. In order to analyze this problem, we proposed a market competition model by employing polynomial logit model and incorporated it in Life Cycle Simulation. As a case study, we simulated competition among new, remanufactured, and refurbished products in Thai photocopier market. The simulation results indicated two messages. First, the remanufactured products might be diffused if we secured enough number of cores (i.e., end-of-life new products), including importing them from developed countries, and promoted advantages of the remanufactured products. Second, since the polynomial logit model relates attributes of products and their life cycles with the probability for choosing a product, the proposed model is useful for evaluating policies, life cycle design, and product design for their effects on the diffusion of the remanufactured products.