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Globalization may cause companies to broaden their customer bases, operate internationally, and serve more customers. However, it also entails dangers, including shifting circumstances, disruptions, and elevated prices. To address these issues, outsourcing has evolved, lowering outputs and service costs. To mitigate these risks, businesses employ strategies such as interventionism, protectionism, and regionalization. By investigating and simulating the interplay of outsourcing approaches to equip businesses with supply chain resilience (SCRES), this study aims to close the knowledge gap between the existing knowledge and global supply chain (GSC) risk management practices. To choose the best alternative for our case study company, we analyzed four distinct outsourcing techniques, namely offshoring, reshoring, nearshoring, and farshoring; furthermore, we investigated the outsourcing elements typically taken into account to achieve resilience. The results indicated that the reshoring method would be the most promising one for this company, under specific circumstances, in terms of attaining resilience in the manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the rising interest for backshoring strategies by mass media, policy makers and public debates, academic research on the topic is relatively recent and still characterised by significant research gaps. Empirical evidence is scarce and often anecdotal, with a lack of studies focusing on specific industries and small-sized firms. Theoretical explanations are also fragmented with many unanswered questions. In particular, much of the existing literature has explored backshoring as a stand-alone phenomenon, independently from other production location strategies. In an attempt to fill these research gaps, we rely upon data from an original survey with around 700 firms from the UK textile and apparel industry to investigate different interrelated factors that influence backshoring strategies relative to offshoring and staying at home choices, within an analytical framework drawn from different international business perspectives, including operations and supply chain management. The paper contributes to the extant literature on backshoring by providing new empirical evidence based on originally collected firm-level data and focused on a single country and industry where smaller (and less studied) firms tend to prevail. Moreover, it helps strengthen the understanding of the phenomenon from a perspective which takes into consideration internationalisation as a non-linear process where firms adjust production location strategies based on a variety of changing conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing body of literature on firms revising their production offshoring decisions, there is scarce research on how reshoring is actually implemented. This paper responds to this gap by analysing the case of FIVE, an Italian electric bike (e-bike) company that has insourced and relocated its production activities – originally outsourced to a Chinese manufacturer – to its home country. The research combines a design science approach with a longitudinal single case study method to gather both theoretical insights and practical managerial advice on how to conduct the reshoring implementation. The study captures the dynamic nature of the implementation process, showing how its elements evolve over time. Organisational learning emerges as a driving factor of reshoring. Each of the implementation stages is characterised by the development of a specific organisational process, which provides the know-how required for performing tasks at that particular stage. From a practical perspective, the study develops five reshoring implementation principles and a three-stage implementation process, thereby offering valuable guidelines for managers of SMEs who wish to undertake the reshoring decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing relocation decisions are complex because they involve combinations of location modes like offshoring or reshoring, and governance modes like insourcing or outsourcing. Furthermore, the uncertainty involved in the decision-making process makes it challenging to reach a right-shoring decision. This study presents a hybrid fuzzy-AHP-TOPSIS model to support generic relocation decisions. Industry experts were involved in a pairwise comparison of the competitive priorities' decision criteria. A meta-synthesis of empirical studies is used to generate theoretical relocation scenarios. The presented hybrid model is used to rank the relocation scenarios in order to identify the most pertinent alternative. The resiliency of the solution is presented through a sensitivity analysis. The results indicate that the proposed hybrid model can simultaneously handle all the main relocation options involving governance modes. Based on the input data in this study, the competitive priorities criteria quality, time and cost are shown to have a strong impact, whereas the sustainability criterion has a weak impact on the choice of relocation option. The research presented in this paper contributes to the research field of manufacturing relocation by demonstrating the suitability of the hybrid fuzzy-AHP-TOPSIS model for relocation decisions and the resilience of the results. Furthermore, the research contributes to practice by providing managers with a generic relocation decision-support model that is capable of simultaneously handling and evaluating various relocation alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article concerns the revision of earlier decisions to offshore production activities (so called "relocation of second degree"); more specifically it is focused on the "reshoring" (also referred as "relocation to the home country", "back-reshoring" or "back-shoring"). The research aims are to investigate what types of mistakes occur along the decision-making and implementation process and how they affect the outcome, in terms of success or failure, of a relocation strategy. A multiple case study involving four companies in the fashion industry from Portugal and Italy was conducted. The cross-case analysis allowed to differentiate decision-making mistakes from implementation ones and to assess differences and similarities among the cases in terms of content of the relocation, drivers and outcomes. The research contributes to previous literature on reshoring by bringing evidence of different types of mistakes to be considered, thus requiring further conceptualization of the reshoring process. Managers and entrepreneurs should consider the importance of doing the things right also during the implementation, too often underestimated. The present article is the first one in the reshoring literature bringing evidence of cases of failure in the relocation decisions and discriminating among different kinds of mistakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of off-shoring strategies, companies are often critically re-evaluating their earlier location decisions; in doing so, sometimes they implement the so-called relocation of second degree. Among them, back-shoring (i.e., relocation to the home country) and near-shoring (relocation to the home region) are two of the alternatives attracting growing interest from scholars. This paper aims to shed new light on the variables influencing the choice made between these two alternatives. As requested in the extant literature, a contingency approach is adopted, focusing attention on the footwear industry. Given the exploratory nature of the paper, evidence from 41 back-shoring and near-shoring strategies are analysed, comparing data from Spanish and Italian companies. Collected data are adapted to test hypotheses concerning three sets of variables: firms' characteristics, motivations for the second degree relocation and its barriers. Collected data show that firm's size directly influences the chosen alternative since larger companies prefer to near-shore instead of back-shore. When considering motivations, while the "made in" effect does not influence the firm's choice, availability of skilled contractors and/or government aids induces companies to relocate to the home country instead of the home region. Finally, companies fearing encountering barriers, in terms of skilled contractors' availability and/or (re-)development of internal manufacturing competences, will prefer the back-shoring rather than the near-shoring option. The study is focused on two countries (Spain and Italy) where the manufacturing sector (and the footwear industry within it) is still relevant to the local economy. Findings cannot be generalized to countries/industries where the local industry has been totally dismantled, without a previous in-depth analysis. The findings obtained offer managers useful insights on the elements that should be carefully evaluated when considering back- and near-shore alternatives. Additionally, valuable insights are provided for policy makers that plan to design industrial policies supporting back-reshoring policy initiatives. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper in the extant literature addressing variables influencing the choice between back- and near-shoring alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the growing body of reshoring literature has focused on why firms reverse a prior location decision. While valuable, this work needs extending to how the decision to reshore is operationalised. Using a two-stage approach, this paper presents a conceptual framework that covers both why and how firms reshore. The framework also utilises contingency theory to identify the factors that influence these decisions. It is therefore claimed to be more comprehensive than others frameworks found in the literature. First, a systematic literature review deductively develops an initial framework. Second, a revised version of the framework is presented using evidence from a single, exemplar case of captive reshoring in the textiles industry. The case evidence identifies new factors and extends a typology of reshoring decisions proposed in the literature to more accurately reflect the dynamic, complex, and incremental nature of the onshore-offshore-reshore location and ownership decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to review and analyze in a systematic manner the current research published in peer-reviewed international scientific journals on the backshoring of manufacturing. We identify 20 articles published from 2009 to early 2016. We classify and discuss the literature according to publication year, research methodology, industry type, and firm size. Using content analysis, we identify 25 factors that are relevant for backshoring decision-making and categorize them into seven clusters that influence the decision to move manufacturing back. These clusters are: cost, quality, time and flexibility, access to skills and knowledge, risks, market, and other factors. Further, we provide a research agenda for further research on the phenomenon of moving manufacturing back. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the industry distribution of reshoring companies and motivations for reshoring, based on 139 cases for reshoring of American manufacturing companies from China, from the beginning of 2009 to the half of 2015. The quality, instead of the rising labor cost, is the primary single factor urging the relocation. Of course, the cost as a group factor is still the most important motivation for reshoring. Both two-dimensional contingency table analysis and hierarchical loglinear analysis with model selection show that the companies reshored their business operations in different industries for the same motivations. The regression analysis indicates that the most likely reshored business activities are the ones serving the US market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the emerging literature on reshoring by taking a value-driven enquiry into the renewal of supply chain strategy. It enhances the understanding of the use of reshoring in generating the value demanded by a changing business model. An iconic British high-end clothing brand, Burberry, is the chosen case study to explore the recent move towards reshoring because its changes of leadership, business model and evolving supply chain strategy from 1997 to early 2016 provide a timely and pertinent context. Burberry has continued to realign its business towards a brand-led and customer-centric model along with restoring its corporate heritage and core brand values. The changes in Burberry's business model triggered the need to renew and realign its supply chain strategy through consolidating and rebuilding manufacturing activities back in the UK, in order to support its brand repositioning as quintessentially British and the company's refocus on heritage products. The increased managerial control in the supply chain together with the close proximity of design and manufacture enables the promise of quality and brand provenance to be fulfilled. The renewal of Burberry's supply chain strategy has contributed to an increase in revenues and brand values. These findings suggest that the renewal of supply chain strategy through reshoring and increasing control in supply chain operations can enhance value and firm competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK clothing industry has seen the extensive offshoring of manufacturing, which has created fragmented global supply chains; these present a range of supply issues and challenges, including many related to sustainability. Reshoring is a reversion of a previous offshoring decision, thereby 'bringing manufacturing back home' (Gray et al. J Supply Chain Management 49(2):27-33, 2013), and can be motivated by increased costs and supply management problems. While not a new phenomenon, the reshoring of activities is growing in practice and there is an imperative for academic research (Fratocchi et al. J Purch Supply Manag 20:54-59, 2014). Through an in-depth longitudinal case study, this paper explores how sustainability can be addressed through reshoring; the studied UK-based clothing SME has strong principles and is explicitly committed to bringing its supply chain 'home'. There is a recognised need for more OM research using a social lens (Burgess and Singh Oper Manag Res 5:57-68, 2012), so Social Network Theory (SNT) is employed to examine the reshoring decision-making process. SNT applies a relational, qualitative approach to understand the interactions between network actors, and focuses on the types and strengths of relationships and how they provide context for decisions (Galaskiewicz J Supply Chain Manag 47(1):4-8, 2011). The findings demonstrate the importance of socially complex, long-term relationships in managing a sustainable supply network. These relationships contribute to the resources that a firm can harness in its supply practices, and SNT extends this with its emphasis on the strength of ties with suppliers, and the trust, reciprocity and shared meanings it engenders. For the studied firm these advantages are derived through its localised supply chain, and collaborative supplier relationships, and its progressive reshoring of activities is integral to achieving its sustainability principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topics of reshoring and insourcing have recently become more widely discussed among operations management and international business scholars and managers, as some firms are revoking their offshoring and outsourcing decisions. This research focuses on and clarifies the decision making processes related to the two distinct, yet closely related phenomena of reshoring and insourcing. It presents a conceptual framework of all theoretically possible reshoring and insourcing decisions, illustrated in its applicability by a review of the United States and German business press. Then four future research avenues are developed as part of an overall decision making framework together with an overview of specific research questions for this emergent field. Further research avenues include the need to differentiate between reshoring/insourcing as strategic direction or reaction to failure, studying organizational readiness in addition to decision drivers, improve coverage of the implementation stage and explore further contingency factors such as technological advancement as well as to focus on decision makers as the unit of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of flexicurity in the context of reshoring manufacturing to high cost countries. Flexicurity is a combination of flexibility, measured by a high level of worker mobility between jobs; social security, representing a generous system of social welfare and unemployment benefits; and active labor market programs. The paper includes flexicurity data from a Danish questionnaire-survey on offshoring and reshoring manufacturing and empirical insights from two illustrative case studies. The cases demonstrate that the flexicurity model had played an important role in the relocation of manufacturing to Denmark, albeit data from the questionnaire-survey indicates some focus on flexicurity as a factor for moving manufacturing back to home countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]