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International audience; Following two major external shocks (the Covid-19 health crisis and the Russian-Ukrainian geopolitical crisis), virulent debates have been launched in the community of management practitioners and researchers on the future of Western economic systems. One of the most recurrent themes of confrontation concerns the appropriateness of relocating industrial activities, after decades of massive relocation, particularly to low-cost labor countries. Paradoxically, the impact of reshoring strategy on the functioning of supply chains remains little discussed, as if “stewardship had to follow”. However, reshoring means taking the opposite side of logistical architectures that have proven their efficiency for decades, and it would be clumsy to think that it will be easy to set up local supply chains to replace global supply chains. Do the specialization courses in logistics and supply chain management (SCM) in French universities give enough space to these major transformations and their impacts? The example of recent technology bachelor’s degrees, in particular the technology bachelor’s degree in marketing, underlines that a significant knowledge deficit among students could have serious consequences on the competitiveness of French companies in the coming years.

Standing at a crossroads, where ongoing ‘slowbalisation’ coincides with new forces such as the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, heightened geopolitical tensions, the emergence of disruptive technologies and the increasing urgency of addressing environmental challenges, many important questions remain unsolved regarding the nature and impact of the current economic globalisation. This special issue on ‘Globalisation in Reverse? Reconfiguring the Geographies of Value Chains and Production Networks’ aims at showcasing recent work that seeks to contribute to, and advance, the debates on economic globalisation and the reconfiguration of global value chains and production networks. This introductory article has three objectives: first, based on a broad literature review, we aim to identify four key forces, as well as the fundamental relatively stable capitalist logics contributing to the complex reconfiguration of global economic activities. Second, we will position the papers included in this special issue against the four main forces identified and discuss the contributions of each article to capture some emerging cross-paper patterns among them. Finally, we outline the contours of a research agenda that suggests promising avenues for further investigation of the phenomenon of value chain and production network reconfigurations in times of uncertainty.

Technological progress in automation technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), is expected to impact production activities beyond the home country adopting them as countries interact within the global trade system. Firms tend to offshore production activities to other countries when it is more profitable to produce elsewhere than at home. The adoption of automation technologies reduces the cost of producing in the home country, making previous offshore locations relatively less attractive. From a global perspective, the altered cost structure induces reshoring: a reorganization of production activities back home or to other lower-cost locations. Developing economies, which previously served as low-cost locations, could be adversely impacted by experiencing a drop in the production of the affected sectors and goods. This paper analyses the potential effect of automation on the global portfolio of trade specialization based on the principle of comparative advantage, employed in an extension of Duchin’s World Trade Model to include non-tradable sectors. Through scenario-based analyses within the global economic context and using data, primarily, from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) and the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), we find that countries in lower-income Asia are likely to be the most adversely affected by reshoring induced by automation in advanced economies.

Technological progress in automation technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), is expected to impact production activities beyond the home country adopting them as countries interact within the global trade system. Firms tend to offshore production activities to other countries when it is more profitable to produce elsewhere than at home. The adoption of automation technologies reduces the cost of producing in the home country, making previous offshore locations relatively less attractive. From a global perspective, the altered cost structure induces reshoring: a reorganization of production activities back home or to other lower-cost locations. Developing economies, which previously served as low-cost locations, could be adversely impacted by experiencing a drop in the production of the affected sectors and goods. This paper analyses the potential effect of automation on the global portfolio of trade specialization based on the principle of comparative advantage, employed in an extension of Duchin’s World Trade Model to include non-tradable sectors. Through scenario-based analyses within the global economic context and using data, primarily, from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) and the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), we find that countries in lower-income Asia are likely to be the most adversely affected by reshoring induced by automation in advanced economies.

This article assesses how the reshoring of manufacturing activities by micro and small enterprises (MSEs) affects the performances of co-located subcontracting networks and the reconfiguration of global value chains (GVCs). We utilize quantitative microdata of Italian MSEs operating in the clothing and footwear industries during the 2008–2015 period. Empirically MSE reshoring does not have a significant impact on domestic subcontractors’ birth rates and survival chances, whereas it is positively associated with their productivity growth. Most MSEs in our sample adopt a dual sourcing strategy, expanding their global production networks while preserving their local supply base. Local and global production networks are not two alternative paradigms of industrial organization; they can be complementary and mutually reinforce each other.

This paper investigates the effects of a retreat from global economic integration on the European regional production network for the period 2000–2010. We find that production has become increasingly fragmented, although the degree of heterogeneity across regions is substantial. This heterogeneity is also present in the direct and indirect effects of three different deglobalisation scenarios that we simulate. Our results show that deglobalisation generates winners and losers. Specifically, two groups of regions emerge; regions that would benefit from a return to a less integrated world, and regions that would instead gain from a strengthening of the European production network.

In the last years, research on reshoring has gained momentum and experienced rapid development. Relying on bibliometric and content analyses of 135 articles from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, this review takes stock and guides future research on the topic. In particular, performing bibliometric performance analysis, conceptual thematic mapping and bibliographic coupling using the Bibliometrix R-package, this study identifies the main contributions to reshoring research, its conceptual structure and emerging themes. Combining the results of bibliometric and content analyses, we propose a conceptual reshoring framework characterized by five main themes: (i) antecedents, (ii) contingencies, (iii) decision, (iv) implementation, and (v) outcome. Following this framework, we organize and discuss past literature, propose a research agenda for each single theme and new avenues for future research on the conceptualization of reshoring as a process.

With the manufacturing reshoring to the US, increasing attention are focus on its energy consumption and environmental effects and accurate prediction of carbon emissions is vital to controlling growth from the source. Considering the slowing growth in carbon emissions with the Gompertz's law, this paper establishes a Gompertz differential equation. According to the differential information principle and fractional accumulation operator, this differential equation is transformed into a fractional accumulation grey Gompertz model. Furthermore, the chaotic whale optimization algorithm is used to optimize the order of accumulation generation and the grey background value in the proposed model. Then the Gompertz's datasets and six validation cases about carbon emissions are used to show that the proposed model demonstrates better accuracy in all cases and efficiency in the carbon emissions forecasting with several existing models. Three case studies indicate that the proposed model can fit the trend of American industrial carbon emissions better. The model results also reveal the recent policy changes have promoted the uptrend of the industrial and the total carbon emissions in the U.S. The future forecasting suggests that U.S. carbon emission is estimated to be 17.01% (in total emissions) or 17.89% (in industrial emission) percent below 2005 levels by 2025 under current policies, falling short of its commitment submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This paper discusses the concepts of reshoring and nearshoring that are gaining increasing popularity. We contribute to the literature in three main ways. First, building on previous theories we define a theoretical framework and consider how recent developments – COVID-19 and Industry 4.0 technologies – may impact on these patterns. Secondly, we process some preliminary evidence to test whether Latin American and Caribbean economies are indeed participating in this reshoring trend. Thirdly, we propose a measure of “Reshoring Readiness”, to assess whether Latin American countries appear to be ready to host relocations and benefit from them. Overall, we find limited evidence of nearshoring to the region so far, except for Mexico, and we highlight strengths and weaknesses of the region for attracting and benefitting from future relocations.

This paper discusses the concepts of reshoring and nearshoring that are gaining increasing popularity. We contribute to the literature in three main ways. First, building on previous theories we define a theoretical framework and consider how recent developments – COVID-19 and Industry 4.0 technologies – may impact on these patterns. Secondly, we process some preliminary evidence to test whether Latin American and Caribbean economies are indeed participating in this reshoring trend. Thirdly, we propose a measure of “Reshoring Readiness”, to assess whether Latin American countries appear to be ready to host relocations and benefit from them. Overall, we find limited evidence of nearshoring to the region so far, except for Mexico, and we highlight strengths and weaknesses of the region for attracting and benefitting from future relocations.

The COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine have highlighted the dependence of the European Union (EU) on individual trading partners. One of the tasks of the European Commission's new Directorate-General, the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), established in 2021, will therefore be to contribute to the EU's "open strategic autonomy" by identifying and eliminating import dependencies in the field of pharmaceuticals. HERA's work thus aligns with current EU efforts to reduce concentrated import risks. Here, three aspects of this work are particularly important: the identification of dependencies, the development of strategies to over­come them and the incorporation of these strategies within global health governance. (author's abstract)

Global value chains (GVCs) have been a major feature of the phase of economic globalisation that began after the 1980s. After the global financial crisis of 2007-08, however, this phase has come to an end, being replaced by one characterized by a significant slowdown in the degree of international economic openness, due to not only economic but also geopolitical reasons.. GVCs have also shown a slowing growth trend after then. The future scenarios for GVCs, however, suggest the possibility that they may be more resilient than expected. A first theoretical explanation provided in the literature argues that the reshoring of foreign intermediate production would be prevented by the high sunk costs that would have to be incurred. However, an additional possible reason for GVCs resilience - this is the main theoretical contribution of this article - is due to the option of friendshoring or nearshoring, rather than reshoring. Moving the production to more suitable foreign destinations, characterized by a political or geographical proximity with the domestic one, would avoid the newly perceived strategic and geopolitical costs, while retaining the economic benefits of offshoring, thereby making GVCs resilient.

Purpose This paper aims to evaluate the impact of automation on job displacement and reshoring in the apparel industry. It also compares with predictions on the same subject matter by the existing literature and, thus, provides future research agenda for further studies. Design/methodology/approach Primary data were collected through 27 semi-structured in-depth interviews. The grounded theory was used for thematic and network analyzes, which traced the drivers and barriers, as well as the impact of automation and reshoring. Findings Initially, automation decreases human interactions in any specific production section. However, it increases productivity, quality and cost advantages, which invoke growth and further employment in clothing firms. The employment of unskilled workers decreases in the long run when automation is well adopted in the system. Automation does not stimulate reshoring but may support relocation initiatives of production sites around the centers of global value chains (GVCs). This GVC-based relocation may create job displacement in apparel manufacturing nations in Asia while bringing employment opportunities to Sub-Saharan African countries, Europe and North America. Originality/value Little empirical research has been conducted on the impact of automation on the apparel industry. This study predicts that human interventions will dominate the sewing of fashionable and sophisticated apparel products while automation may replace many human workers for basic garment items in the foreseeable future.

Global value changes continued to expand until the late 2000s. On the other hand, regional value chains have formed around major regional hubs due to the expansion of domestic demand in emerging economies, such as China, and strengthened trade protectionism since the global financial crisis. Such changes lead to the reorganisation of value chains, focusing on domestic markets (reshoring) or neighbouring countries (nearshoring). In particular, the importance of supply chain risk management has been highlighted following disruptions to the supply network due to the COVID-19 outbreak in December 2019. In this regard, major countries such as the USA and the EU are rapidly shifting to regional value chains for stable and sustainable production, rather than primarily aiming for production efficiency targeted at reducing costs. Industries in particular are more exposed to such supply chain risks under the existing structure and it now has become extremely important for businesses to take reaction to such risks. This is especially important for major industries in a country such as automobile or semiconductor manufacturing industries in South Korea. The aim of this study, therefore, is to establish the basis for the simultaneous growth of ports and linked industries by examining the existing structure of the global value chain for the automotive industry, which has a strong presence in South Korea’s domestic economy. In this regard, this research carries out a supply chain analysis focusing on the imports and exports of automotive parts. It also analyses the current structural risks and suggests risk management measures to secure a stable supply chain. © 2021 Jungseok Research Institute of International Logistics and Trade.

PURPOSE: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the performance of global value chains (GVCs) due to lockdowns, restricted labor mobility, and consumers’ access to retail markets. Authors verify the research hypothesis as follows: recent disruptions in GVCs will induce reshoring and permanent reconfiguration of economic activity whereas enhancing deglobalization., DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Authors conducted a critical analysis of economic papers registered in the Web of Science and Scopus databases and ratio analysis based on the World Bank’s World Development Indicators and Reports., FINDINGS: Authors argued that the reshoring of GVCs seems to lack solid, far-reaching economic premises, whereas policy recommendations in favor of enhancing GVCs’ stability and resilience proved to be significant., PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Authors provided a set of policy recommendations regarding enhancing the stability and resilience of GVCs when facing shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic to minimize negative impacts related to reshoring and reconfiguring economic activity, e.g., discouraging productivity and competitiveness across regions, industries, and enterprises., ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The paper discusses current and vital issues associated with implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for GVCs activities, providing valuable policy recommendations for mitigating deglobalization trends., The project is financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland under the programme "Regional Initiative of Excellence" 2019 - 2022 project number 015/RID/2018/19 total funding amount 10 721 040,00 PLN"., peer-reviewed

The paper analyses the trend towards reshoring processes in the field of manufacturing industry as a result of the massive digitisation of the technical solutions used by most product fields. The paper analyses the trend towards reshoring processes in the new productive scenario of industry 4.0 posed by the manufacturing industry because of the overall application of ICT and other technologies in their product fields. The incorporation of Industry 4.0 technologies (I 4.0 T) and the resulting digitalisation raises needs for technology adaptation in production plants that have strong territorial effects derived from the technological constraints linked to the adaptation process itself and that result, in many cases, in reshoring. Our analytical proposal takes a logical-formal point of view based on the cognitive composition of the technical solutions used by manufacturing industry, and draws up a typology of technology profiles to help determine the potential for reshoring among offshored plants and the difficulties that the process may entail. The results enable us to identify a growing role for reshoring processes, distinguishing different degrees of intensity depending on the characteristics of the technological scenario in which each plant is located, with the technological resources offered by its local setting playing a fundamental role.

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the influence of the industry technology intensity on the drivers of manufacturing backshoring.Design/methodology/approachAn analysis of backshoring factors in recent cases of backshoring in the European manufacturing industry based on original qualitative and quantitative information collected from different databases. This analysis was performed using different econometric models applied to samples of firms classified by technology intensity of industries.FindingsDrivers of backshoring are conditioned by the technology intensity of the industries. The models that analyse firms classified by technology intensity of the industries have a good explanatory capacity with few key factors. In industries with low-technology intensity, backshoring is a cost-oriented strategy and the drivers are linked to internal process optimisation and external factors related to labour and logistics costs in the host location. In industries with high-technology intensity, backshoring is mainly an innovation-oriented strategy and the key drivers are those related to the internal innovation capacity for improvement of the technological level of manufacturing processes. The research also identifies the more suitable theoretical approaches for explaining backshoring drivers in each type of industry according to its technology intensity.Originality/valueThis research analyses the backshoring drivers by means of models applied to firms classified by the technology intensity of industries. It also reinforces the dynamic perspective of time to analyse backshoring as a reassessment of location decisions made after prior offshoring.

In this paper, we develop a metric of reshoring at the macroeconomic level, at the level of industries or countries. Our dynamic measure computes the change in the domestic–foreign input ratio and therewith captures the idea of moving production back to the home country. Additional conditions ensure that the measure is confined to actual reshoring and does not pick up, for example, mere changes in the scale and composition of production. We show that reshoring is only weakly approximated by reduced offshoring. We compute the reshoring intensity from the World Input Output Database and illustrate the use of the data with several applications. Specifically, we compute trends in reshoring for examples of countries and industry sectors, we investigate reshoring from China, and examine the impact of an increasing degree of automation for reshoring in emerging and developing economies.

The journal of Operations Management Research (OMR) is a rigorous journal that started its publication in 2008. It publishes short, focused research studies that advance both the theory and practice of operations management. Considering the relevant OMR’s contribution to the field of Operations Management in the last years, this study provides an overall assessment of the journal performance by conducting a retrospective review. To elaborate on OMR's temporal development in terms of publications, authors, affiliated institutions and countries, citation patterns, and conceptual structure, we extract publications from Scopus database for the period 2008–2020. We rely on bibliometric techniques in addition to bibliographic coupling, keyword analysis, and content analysis. 166 documents were analyzed using RStudio, VOSviewer, and Microsoft Excel. Findings emphasize OMR’s steady productivity growth (3.24%). Narrowly, Olhager J. is the most productive authors while Kalchschmidt M. and Stentoft J. are the most influential authors (H-index of 4). Furthermore, USA contributes to the highest number of publications while UK is the most influential country in terms of citations. Cranfield School of Management, UK stands as the top cited university. The analysis of the thematic evolution concludes to three main clusters: "Manufacturing and Supply chain Performance", "Six Sigma and Lean Management", and "Reshoring, Backshoring and Offshoring". This study recommends to further investigate the implications of the fourth industrial revolution and the sequels of COVID-19.

Purpose Reshoring is one of the supply chain risk management techniques suggested in literature. However, literature suggests that the decision-making involved in reshoring is complex and not fully understood. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, reshoring may represent a way to reduce reliance on global sources and improve resilience of their supply chains. This paper aims to explore if the pandemic is driving reshoring decisions and if the pandemic will actually lead to companies reshoring parts of their supply chain. Design/methodology/approach This paper critically engages with senior(-most) supply chain managers from three manufacturing companies as they proceed through reshoring decision-making. This enables to develop experiential knowledge about reshoring decision-making processes and their context, as well as insights into the relevance of existing knowledge about reshoring. While not a full multiple case study, the opportunity to engage directly with senior(-most) supply chain managers as they consider reshoring, enables near real-time learning. Not only is reshoring a very timely topic literature has also called for more event-based empirical research. Further to that, it is hoped that this can complement this special issue and support, in a timely manner, the many researchers that are actively studying the impact of the pandemic on supply chains. Findings Reshoring was being actively considered by all three companies during the research process in Q3 and Q4 of 2020. During this period the pandemic has not yet led to substantial implementation of reshoring, at least by the companies studied in this paper. In response to tariffs on Chinese imports, companies had been diversifying their supply base away from China, but doing so by developing alternative, global sources. Additionally, companies are using alternative risk management techniques, such as supplier collaboration, in the short to medium term. Reshoring decision-making is indeed found to be complex and requires a longer-term time horizon for decision-making and implementation. Logistical challenges and growth in demand do drive a willingness of consumers to pay a premium for locally sourced products. However, when supply normalizes these considerations might lose relevance well before reshoring decision-making and implementation can be completed. Originality/value This paper studies reshoring in a real-world setting, learning directly from insights from industry as they emerge. This paper develops four extensions to existing knowledge, develop these in frameworks and hope that this will support ongoing consideration in industry and support the many researchers that are active in this domain today. This paper also suggests several directions for further research.