Beyond the Counter: Exploring Return Management as a Social Practice in Large-Scale Retail
(2025) SMMM40 20251Department of Service Studies
- Abstract
- This thesis explores how return policies are enacted and adapted in large-scale retail practice
through the everyday work of employees. Using Social Practice Theory (SPT) as a theoretical
framework, the study investigates how large-scale retail’s 365-day return policy is interpreted,
negotiated, and performed by employees across different regional and organizational settings.
While return management is often understood in terms of logistics and consumer behavior,
this thesis focuses on the operational and emotional realities faced by employees, highlighting
how returns work involves situated judgment, cross-functional collaboration, and emotional
labor.
The research draws on 14 semi-structured interviews with large-scale retail... (More) - This thesis explores how return policies are enacted and adapted in large-scale retail practice
through the everyday work of employees. Using Social Practice Theory (SPT) as a theoretical
framework, the study investigates how large-scale retail’s 365-day return policy is interpreted,
negotiated, and performed by employees across different regional and organizational settings.
While return management is often understood in terms of logistics and consumer behavior,
this thesis focuses on the operational and emotional realities faced by employees, highlighting
how returns work involves situated judgment, cross-functional collaboration, and emotional
labor.
The research draws on 14 semi-structured interviews with large-scale retail employees from
eight countries, combined with non-participant observations conducted in Sweden and
Denmark. Findings show that return practices are shaped not only by formal policy and digital
systems but also by regional customer norms, informal learning, and frontline innovation.
Employees do not passively implement policy but actively make it work, adapting routines,
improvising with tools, and navigating tensions between customer satisfaction and business
sustainability.
By examining returns as a socially and materially embedded practice, the thesis provides new
insights into how service policies are sustained and reconfigured in daily work. It contributes to
both service management and organizational studies by emphasizing the interpretive and
emotional dimensions of returns work and by showing how employee agency, competence,
and collaboration drive everyday service innovation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9205083
- author
- Fatharani, Afina LU and Htet, Swan
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SMMM40 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- product returns, Social Practice Theory, emotional labor, large-scale retail, service work, return policy, organizational routines, employee competence, retail innovation
- language
- English
- id
- 9205083
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-24 13:53:38
- date last changed
- 2025-06-24 13:53:38
@misc{9205083,
abstract = {{This thesis explores how return policies are enacted and adapted in large-scale retail practice
through the everyday work of employees. Using Social Practice Theory (SPT) as a theoretical
framework, the study investigates how large-scale retail’s 365-day return policy is interpreted,
negotiated, and performed by employees across different regional and organizational settings.
While return management is often understood in terms of logistics and consumer behavior,
this thesis focuses on the operational and emotional realities faced by employees, highlighting
how returns work involves situated judgment, cross-functional collaboration, and emotional
labor.
The research draws on 14 semi-structured interviews with large-scale retail employees from
eight countries, combined with non-participant observations conducted in Sweden and
Denmark. Findings show that return practices are shaped not only by formal policy and digital
systems but also by regional customer norms, informal learning, and frontline innovation.
Employees do not passively implement policy but actively make it work, adapting routines,
improvising with tools, and navigating tensions between customer satisfaction and business
sustainability.
By examining returns as a socially and materially embedded practice, the thesis provides new
insights into how service policies are sustained and reconfigured in daily work. It contributes to
both service management and organizational studies by emphasizing the interpretive and
emotional dimensions of returns work and by showing how employee agency, competence,
and collaboration drive everyday service innovation.}},
author = {{Fatharani, Afina and Htet, Swan}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Beyond the Counter: Exploring Return Management as a Social Practice in Large-Scale Retail}},
year = {{2025}},
}