Starting This Log: Why Warranties and R2R Policies Intersect in Aftermarket Operations Strategy
I'm starting this journal to track right-to-repair and warranty developments that connect to my research agenda. My 2022 M&SOM paper with Dr.Atasu and Dr.Tereyagoglu examined warranty length, product reliability, and secondary markets. Meanwhile, the R2R movement is, in many ways, a live policy experiment in what happens when repair market access is actively contested — and the outcomes have direct implications for aftermarket competition, which are similar to those we modeled for warranty decisions.
The core operations question I keep returning to: when firms have desires to control the repair ecosystem — parts, software, diagnostic tools, authorized dealer networks — what role does the strategic logic of warranty design play? Traditional models treat warranty as a quality signal or a form of insurance for buyers. But when the manufacturer also actively engages the repair market, warranty becomes part of a broader aftermarket revenue strategy. The product sale is the entry point; the service market is where profits accumulate.
The Deere case is the most recent example, but the same dynamic is visible across sectors: telematics and OBD data access in automotive, parts pairing in consumer electronics, software locks on FDA-cleared medical devices. I'll track developments across all of these, with a focus on what each case tells us about firm strategy and the operational consequences of repair market structure.