Despite the popularity of reverse logistics in literature, the effect of different collaboration types on the likelihood to introduce reverse logistics innovation has been under-investigated. Hence, this article explores the impact of domestic collaboration with competitors, customers, suppliers, research institutions, and the breadth of collaboration on a firm's reverse logistics innovation. Four hypotheses - grounded on institutional, resource dependence, and absorptive capacity theories – are tested through generalized structural equation modelling analyses on a longitudinal sample of German firms. The results show a positive impact of vertical collaboration, horizontal collaboration, and collaboration with research institutions on the likelihood to introduce reverse logistics innovation. In contrast, collaboration breadth has a negative impact on reverse logistics, an unexpected and surprising result for the innovation management literature. The article offers recommendations to practitioners as to which partners are more likely to increase the odds of introducing reverse logistics innovation and demonstrates that – to such an aim - firms should select a limited number of partners, identifying the ones that suit their needs the most.

尽管逆向物流在文献中很受欢迎，但不同合作类型对引入逆向物流创新的可能性的影响尚未得到充分研究。因此，本文探讨了国内与竞争对手、客户、供应商、研究机构的合作以及合作的广度对企业逆向物流创新的影响。四个假设——基于制度、资源依赖和吸收能力理论——通过对德国公司纵向样本的广义结构方程模型分析进行检验。结果表明，纵向合作、横向合作以及与研究机构合作对引入逆向物流创新的可能性产生积极影响。相比之下，协作广度对逆向物流有负面影响，这对于创新管理文献来说是一个出人意料的结果。这篇文章就哪些合作伙伴更有可能增加引入逆向物流创新的几率向从业者提供了建议，并表明——为了实现这一目标——公司应该选择数量有限的合作伙伴，确定最适合他们需求的合作伙伴。