Orchestrating Circularity in UK Accident Repair: An Intermediary Perspective on Green Parts and Reverse Logistics

This study examines the drivers and barriers shaping the adoption of salvaged automotive components (“green parts”) in the UK accident repair sector and evaluates the strategic implications for intermediary firms in fragmented service ecosystems. An exploratory qualitative case study of a leading UK aftermarket parts distributor (LKQ UK & Ireland) was undertaken using semi-structured interviews with insurers, repairers, dismantlers, and logistics managers. The findings show that formal institutional barriers have weakened, but adoption remains constrained by operational friction, asymmetric risk allocation, weak provenance transparency, and limited inter-organisational coordination. Cost pressure and service continuity emerged as the dominant drivers, while quality inconsistency, warranty liability, and fragmented sourcing remained key barriers. Scalable adoption depends on ecosystem-level coordination rather than firm-level action alone. The study contributes an intermediary-centric, multi-stakeholder perspective to research on reverse logistics and circular supply chains. Circularity in service-intensive aftermarkets depends as much on coordination, risk distribution, and service design as on resource recovery.