Search

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to clearly mark the clusters in the related literature using bibliometric analysis and draw useful implications for the academic research purposes especially in the stream of Supply Chain Management (SCM). Design/methodology/approach – By employing rigorous selection criteria, sample articles were selected for synthesizing and conducting a bibliometric analysis. This paper tries to identify the significance of the concept of reshoring with the aspect of SCM, operations, logistics etc. Starting from sample selection, systematic selection criteria has been used to generate the database, using Scopus. The sample size was 184. Using VOSViewer, statistical and graphical representations were generated for clusters in the literature that will be useful for judging the trends of research under shoring concepts. Findings – Findings show that unclear difference compared to other supply chain concepts obstructs further theory development within reshoring concepts. To address this challenge, the review categorizes themes and defines boundaries. Based on the analysis findings, this paper advocates for additional research in areas that are crucial but have received limited or no attention. Specifically, there is a need for action research on motivations, governance modes, and location selection concerning reshoring decisions. Research limitations/implications – This review has a few limitations. The absence of publications in other language, than English, may result in a significant loss of knowledge. This research paper cited a few relevant publications in the form of conference papers, industry reports, books, and book chapters. Nonetheless, they were excluded from the organized bibliometric audit. To further advance the knowledge in this field, exploratory longitudinal case studies will bring to focus the changes on manufacturing strategies using the shoring and reshoring stages. Practical implications – A current example of this is a French company named Stil (Terzian, 2020) which brought its glass thermometer production back to its home after the unexpected closure of its suppliers from China. Another Italian firm has restarted production of disposal bio-degradable face masks after 15 years to compete with low-cost alternatives from China (Greco, 2020). Reshoring concepts are now under consideration of organizations including Boeing, Bosch, Phillips and more. Originality/value – To the best of our knowledge, this represents one of the earliest efforts to conceptualize and define reshoring concepts, aiming to distinguish them from one another appropriately. To accomplish this, the earlier demarcated clusters precede this section’s classification of reshoring concepts illustrated in Table 8. Based on the synthesis of definitions and thematic clusters above, we have concluded the literature review in this emerging field. It is intended to contribute to theory development and practitioner support in reshoring decisions by clarifying the dimensions.

This paper analyses the effect of offshoring on firm outcomes, using data from Germany's International Sourcing Survey (ISS) 2017 linked to other firm‐level data. We use a direct, survey‐based measure of offshoring on the extensive margin, namely whether a firm has relocated business functions abroad that were previously performed domestically within the firm. The analysis proceeds in two parts. First, difference‐in‐differences propensity score matching estimates reveal a negative effect of offshoring on domestic employment and production. However, most of this effect is not because the offshoring firms shrink, but because they do not grow as fast as the non‐offshoring firms. We further decompose the underlying employment dynamics using direct survey evidence on how many jobs the firms destroyed/created due to offshoring. Second, we analyse changes in the mix of import goods. Offshoring firms increase the share of 'produced goods imports', that is goods which are both imported and produced domestically by the firm. In contrast, offshoring firms do not increase the share of intermediate goods imports (a commonly used proxy for offshoring), as defined by the BEC Rev. 5 classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We check the role of time‐zone difference on offshoring of service tasks when the skill of labors varies between the partner countries. We frame a model where partner countries are located in non‐overlapping time zones, and the skill level of the partner‐country labors is lower. In our model, service production is divided into two sequential stages, and output is a supermodular function of the skill of labors and time. The problem of the producers is to choose between domestic production and offshoring. Domestic production employs high‐skill labors though the time management is inefficient. On the other hand, offshoring to a non‐overlapping time zone helps to work round the clock and reduce the cost, but the lower expertise of skilled labor lowers the output. In such a framework, we check conditions for beneficial offshoring. The condition derived in our analysis provides combinations of skill and time that can make offshoring beneficial. Results show that offshoring across time zones is beneficial even when the complexity of stages of production vary. However, only the relatively less‐critical task is offshored. We further find that availability of domestic low‐skill labor does not benefit the firm, while foreign low‐skill labor may be beneficially utilized through time‐zone exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshoring continues to be an important dimension of firms' internationalization choices. However, offshoring also increases contract enforcement costs by inhibiting the coordination and monitoring of performance. Immigrant employees may reduce such costs through their specific knowledge of the employer, their country of birth and access to foreign networks. In this paper, we investigate the role of immigrant employees within firms on firm offshoring, employing rich administrative Swedish microlevel data that include specific information about the characteristics of employees, manufacturing firms and their bilateral offshoring. Our results support the hypothesis that immigrant employees increase offshoring by lowering contract enforcement costs. Hiring one additional immigrant employee is linked to a relatively larger increase in offshoring at the intensive than the extensive margin, on average. The association to offshoring is considerably stronger for skilled immigrant employees and for contract and R&D intensive offshoring. Instrumental variable estimations demonstrate qualitatively similar results, while a placebo test with randomized immigrant employment does not generate any link between immigrants and offshoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In times of prolonged economic doldrums across the globe, multinational firms (MNFs) offshoring blunders can undermine their competitiveness in the marketplace. To help the MNF formulate a more resilient offshoring strategy and identify the most desirable offshoring destination, this article aims to identify dynamic risk factors that significantly hinder the efficiency of offshoring and then measure specific offshoring risks over time using two different versions of data envelopment analysis (DEA) models and Malmquist productivity index (MPI). After assessing the degree of risk resiliency of the offshoring host countries over extended periods and then conducting Tobit regression analysis to identify key factors that significantly influence offshoring risks, we found that the host country's logistics efficiency (i.e., logistics performance index [LPI]) and domestic market size were critical indicators of offshoring success in that country. Since low‐cost sourcing countries (LCCs) tend to have relatively low LPIs and smaller domestic market sizes, they are not attractive offshoring destinations. This finding defies conventional wisdom. This article is one of the first longitudinal studies to assess the comprehensive risk resilience of 87 different offshoring destinations (countries) during multiple periods (6‐year span). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide the first systematic analysis of how attitudes toward workplace automation and artificial intelligence (AI) vary by gender, using survey data from ten countries. Our analyses reveal a significant gender gap in the perceived fairness of automation and AI, similar in magnitude to that of job offshoring. Drawing on the literature on economic shocks, we examine four explanations based on gender differences in (a) economic self-interest, (b) technological knowledge, (c) sociotropic concerns and (d) social status perceptions. Including these variables in our models, however, narrows the observed gender gap by only 40%. To better understand the sources of attitudinal variation by gender, we rely on Kitagawa–Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, which shows that distributional differences in group characteristics, specifically women's lower levels of technological knowledge and self-reported social status, account for approximately one-third of the gap, while the other two-thirds are explained by differences in how specific variables differentially influence attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purposes of the research are to establish the theoretical foundations and to conduct a thorough analysis related to the creation of special economic zones (hereinafter referred to as SEZ) and identification of their key features. To achieve these purposes, theoretical aspects of SEZ have been considered in relation to Russia. As a result, the main types and distinctive characteristics of SEZ have been found, which are one of the instruments of economic development that contributes to rapid economic growth due to tax, customs and currency privileges. The article examines the process of expanding the networks of SEZ. They can act as a catalyst for changeable development. The research also studies their further formation prospects. The main results of the research lie in new knowledge about zones of special economic type, achieved by analysing the principles of creating SEZ and by collecting information about them as zones which contribute to the improvement of foreign economic relations and development of trade relations in general. The next area of research on this topic is the subsequent introduction of flexible ways to prepare the latest branches of development in the field of studying SEZ that are currently of rather great importance.

We explore the wage effects of offshoring‐induced employment shocks in US commuting zones (CZs) and industries. Using data on petitions for the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), we measure such shocks by computing the share of TAA‐certified offshoring‐induced layoffs out of total employment. We further identify material‐offshoring shocks and service‐offshoring shocks and connect the TAA data to individual‐level worker data from the American Community Survey. Empirical results show statistically significant and negative wage effects of the CZ‐level offshoring shocks, especially for service offshoring. On the contrary, we find positive wage effects of industry‐level offshoring shocks in industries exposed to both types of offshoring. Furthermore, we show that offshoring is associated with the widening gender wage gap in local labor markets and that workers in production and highly‐offshorable occupations are more vulnerable to the CZ‐level offshoring shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshoring location selection is a crucial decision for firms in terms of competitiveness, flexibility, productivity, and profitability. Determining an efficient and appropriate location for offshoring has been a substantial multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. Considering that the outcome of an MCDM method alone can be misleading, a novel hybrid approach is presented in this study. Thus, five MCDM methods are utilized to solve the problem, and the results of four MCDM methods are integrated to assure an optimal offshoring location. A FuzzyAHP (analytical hierarchy process) integrated with the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), additive ratio assessment (ARAS), elimination et choix traduisant la realité (ELECTRE), and weighted sum method (WSM) methodology is proposed for the appraisal and selection of the optimal offshoring location. In this context, fifteen alternative locations are determined based on the attractiveness of the locations in terms of offshoring. Fuzzy-AHP is implemented to analyze the problem's structure and find the weights of the quantitative and qualitative criteria. Consistency tests are implemented to assess the quality of inputs of an expert. Then, TOPSIS, WSM, ARAS, and ELECTRE are used to evaluate and rank the candidate locations and present a comparative analysis. By considering fifteen countries and using real data, offshoring location selection is conducted through the proposed methodology. Moreover, sensitivity analysis is made to diminish the subjectivity and assess the robustness of the techniques. The results demonstrated that giving more weights to the labor characteristics and proximity to market criteria might improve the quality of the best offshoring country index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effects of offshoring on female employment in a developing country as a recipient. We utilise unique data on outsourcing revenues from Indonesia's manufacturing plants. After correcting for offshoring's endogeneity through an instrument variable, we find substantial positive effects on the share of female workers, primarily driven by the increase in female workers without adversely affecting male employment. These positive effects are evident in production occupations but not in non‐production ones. Furthermore, these effects are more pronounced in industries with a sizeable low‐educated workforce, low‐technology sectors or light industries. Finally, we find that international outsourcing, rather than domestic outsourcing, is the key factor for female employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a two-country model (North and South) that describes the phenomenon of offshoring and reshoring. The model is a continuous time-controlled Markov chain with binary states. The main trade-off involves production costs and transaction costs between one country and another. In the first part of this paper, we identify the key parameters of the model: the difference in unit production costs between the two countries considered, the marginal cost of transitioning between countries, and the incentive paid by the North country to all companies that have not relocated at the end of the planning interval. The final goal of our paper is to understand how national tax incentives can influence this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For most of the past half-century, a significant number of companies have carried out a process of transformation of production chains by offshoring parts, components, or services to other countries. The integration of most economies into global value chains (GVCs) has triggered important impacts on several dimensions of the labour markets. In view of the divergent results reported by the related literature, we conduct a meta-analysis on the effects of GVCs on employment. We find that although the average impact is not statistically different from zero, the impact of GVCs on employment differs significantly according to the countries' development level, the degree of workers' qualifications, the types of sectors that are considered, the unit of analysis, and the indicators used to measure GVCs and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processes of outsourcing and offshoring have driven the changing spatial divisions of labour through foreign investment and development of peripheral regions into key offshore destinations for business services. This paper focuses on the role of elites, transnational and domestic, in the transformation of Romania into a major business services offshoring location in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) over the last two decades. The paper reveals the role of elite agency in connecting domestic resources to business services global production networks (GPNs) in order to drive domestic institutional transformation. A lot has been written about the agency of labour; yet there is a gap in our understanding of the agency of elites, specifically how transnational elites articulate with other elites at the national-, meso- and micro-level and produce institutional changes. Drawing on literature on enclave creation and dual economies, the paper illustrates how the alliance between domestic and transnational elites shaped transformation across the sector by implementing labour market flexibilisation and by crafting a 'sound' business environment in terms of infrastructure, investment incentives and bureaucratic framework to emulate institutional conditions of the home country. The development of the Romanian business services sector into an 'enclave economy' has become dependent on collaborative networks with domestic universities and intermediary organisations, which played a key role in facilitating foreign investment attraction and linking domestic resources to the needs of multinational firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly skilled workers are not only a crucial and relatively scarce input into firms' productive and innovative processes, but are also a critical resource determining competitive advantage. An increasingly high proportion of these workers in the United States were born abroad and permitted to work on skilled worker visas. How do multinational firms respond when artificial constraints, namely, policies restricting skilled immigration, are placed on their ability to hire scarce human capital? This paper combines visa microdata and comprehensive data on U.S. multinational firm activity to demonstrate that firms respond to restrictions on H-1B immigration by increasing foreign affiliate employment at the intensive and extensive margins, particularly in China, India, and Canada. The most impacted jobs were R&D-intensive ones, but there is some evidence that non-R&D employment was also affected. The paper highlights a means by which firms can circumvent constraining policies and mitigate country-level risk, and it also suggests that, for the average multinational company (MNC), this means is imperfect; for every visa rejection, they hire 0.4 employees abroad. The most globalized MNCs are the most likely to respond to these restrictions by offshoring, highlighting that firm capabilities—in the form of prior internationalization—shape the decision and ability to offshore in response to skilled immigration restrictions; indeed, these firms hire 0.9 employees abroad for every visa rejection. More broadly, the paper provides evidence of a push factor for internationalizing knowledge activity: artificial constraints on resources result in firms circumventing restrictive policies in ways that may not be anticipated by policy makers. This paper was accepted by Alfonso Gambardella, business strategy. Funding: This work was supported by the Mack Institute for Innovation Management. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4715. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We contribute theoretically and empirically to the policy debate on the domestic impact of offshore outsourcing. First, within a simple Ricardian structure, we put forward a growth model where sourcing of foreign inputs by itself, without any transplanted channels, leads to higher growth of domestic industries. Second, by combining country-sector level panel data on production with data on sector level use of imported inputs and input tariffs, we estimate the impact of foreign outsourcing on productivity and output growth. In line with our theoretical model, our analysis confirms that foreign sourcing of inputs exerts a positive effect on growth whereas imported final goods turn out to be insignificant. This has important policy ramifications: removal of trade barriers on intermediate inputs is necessary to boost growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We extend the small country trade model with firm heterogeneity (Demidova and Rodriguez-Clare, Journal of International Economics, 90, 2013 and 266) to incorporate offshoring (along with final goods trade). We derive the firm-level employment implications of output and input trade and trade costs and test them using Korean firm-level data for the period 2006–2016. A key theoretical result is that the impact of a change in offshoring cost on employment depends crucially on the net substitutability between inputs where net substitutability is the difference between the elasticities of input substitution and output substitution. Empirically, we find that a decrease in the input trade cost reduces employment and the impact is stronger, the greater the net substitutability between inputs. Our 2SLS results with firm-level imports (in place of trade costs) are consistent with our results with trade costs.

We draw on the literature to categorise the supply chain disturbances (risks and uncertainties) that affect high-value manufacturing (HVM) firms when adopting the following two sourcing strategies: (a) insourcing/nearshore outsourcing, and (b) outsourcing/offshoring. We build a hierarchy structure of disturbances, which was tested in a case study of a European HVM operating in the aerospace industry. A novelty of this study is the quantitative prioritisation and comparison, using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, of the disturbances reported by two groups of managers: three product managers (internally facing) and four supply chain managers (externally facing). Our findings show that managers' perceptions of firm-related, network-related and location-related disturbances can be prejudiced by their functional boundaries. We show that both product and supply chain managers prefer the insource/nearshore outsource strategy, as they feel that the disturbances while outsourcing/offshoring are significantly greater and offset the benefits of low-cost production – a counterintuitive finding. Through in-depth interviews with both groups of managers, we found the mitigation strategies are reshoring, full consideration to the total cost of acquisition (including hidden costs of distant operations) and building clusters in emerging markets to support the firm's regional hub by partnering with its existing suppliers from developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Non-technical summary Given increasing global political, security and economic challenges, politicians in the European Union (EU) are seeking to reduce the EU's dependence on imports, including feed for farmed livestock. While insect farming has been suggested as an advantageous source of livestock feed is the insect farming industry, the sector has not met optimistic expectations. In particular, labor and electricity costs are driving insect companies offshore, including to Asia and the United States. This paper explores ways that the EU could solve this problem, the most promising of which is to expand the EU's production of maize and soy. Technical summary In the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and increasing global destabilization, policy makers within the European Union have expressed the need to reduce the bloc's dependence on imported agricultural products such as livestock feed. One industry that has been promoted as an advantageous source of livestock feed is insect agriculture. However, the insect industry's growth has not kept pace with optimistic expectations, and high labor and electricity costs in Europe appear to be driving major insect companies to expand production offshore. One solution may involve supporting the automation of insect farming, though automation may have harmful social consequences by reducing employment and exacerbating inequality. A more promising solution could involve bringing additional land under cultivation to expand domestic production of maize and soy, and the most up-to-date estimates suggest that doing so may even offer environmental benefits over insect production. Social media summary Insect farming has been offered as a solution to EU food security, but labor and power costs complicate the picture.

Law enforcement and public health agencies operate in the context of their national government policies and resources. But improving and protecting health and community safety are made more difficult by four dark geopolitical forces which have been accelerating in recent years. Neoliberalism is driving governments to pursue low tax, low regulation small-state policies and aiding the expansion of uncontrolled globalization and colonialization of health-damaging manufacturing and services by multinational companies. The "Sovereign individuals," first described in 1997, are the super-rich who have mastery over information technologies to avoid taxes and hide their wealth from governments. The vast offshoring of wealth has led to increasing inequalities in wealth and health, between rich and poor, further adding to civil distrust and unrest. Loss of revenues prevents government funding of health, welfare, and public protection whilst creating greater need for it. To explain the increasing poverty and harshness of life for the masses, there has been a rebirth and rise of populism. This has accelerated political corruption, created culture wars, fomented distrust of others, and added to global political instability. The information revolution has influenced all of these: it has created its own dark geopolitical force through the explosion of social media and industrial disinformation undermining individual critical thinking and democratic processes. Law enforcement and public health agencies face the consequences of these dark forces in their daily work, but they also need to understand more and develop more effective partnership responses to counter the worst excesses of the new geopolitical realities. [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]

This theoretical study explores how a home country's policies influence where multinational companies choose to produce. The study models subsidy negotiations between firms and both the home and foreign countries, revealing that offering reshoring subsidies might lead to repatriation of the multinational firm. If the host country values job creation's welfare gain from reshoring, a large reshoring subsidy from the home government can be seen as socially acceptable and encourage reshoring. However, if the home governments prioritize job creation less and the foreign government aims to retain the firm, pushing for reshoring may increase costs for the foreign country and reduce its social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: A critical decision made by firms is whether to adopt a responsive supply chain (prioritizing speed) or an efficient supply chain (prioritizing cost). We consider the environmental implications of this choice, distinguishing between responsiveness achieved via three pathways: responsive offshore supply chains increase speed by using expedited production and distribution methods; responsive nearshore supply chains increase speed by reducing the physical distance between source and destination for all production; and hybrid nearshore supply chains produce in multiple locations simultaneously, increasing speed by reducing distance on some portion of production. Methodology/results: Using a model wherein responsiveness increases fixed and marginal costs, decreases leadtimes, and changes the per-unit environmental impact of production and distribution, we identify several results. First, all types of responsiveness can decrease environmental impact relative to an efficient supply chain, showing any form of responsiveness has potential to improve sustainability. Second, despite this, all types of responsiveness can also increase environmental impact relative to an efficient supply chain, particularly if demand variability is high. This is precisely when responsiveness is most profitable to the firm, indicating a tension between firm and environmental preferences. Third, a win-win outcome in which responsiveness both maximizes firm profit and minimizes environmental impact is most likely to occur when demand variability is high and unsatisfied customers substitute with a product that generates high environmental impact. Fourth, the firm may have incentive to choose a supply chain that does not minimize (and may maximize) environmental impact, especially at low-to-moderate demand variability. Managerial implications: While responsive supply chains can improve sustainability, they also generate the potential for misalignment of profit and environmental performance. We discuss the implications of this for firms and for policymakers seeking to encourage firms to use supply chains that generate the least environmental impact. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0152. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflections on the factors that influence the delocalization of Italian companies to other countries, arising from a rapidly changing world economy, offer invaluable insight into companies facing similar tough choices. Usually, this decision is attributed to economic, fiscal, and institutional factors. This article examines the process of delocalization of Italian enterprises and empirically verifies the main factors which influence the delocalization of Italian enterprises to East European Countries. The results suggest that "labor market regulation", "business regulation", and "size of government" or better said, the labor cost the host country, is the main incentive of Italian enterprises to delocalize their production. Empirical results also show that institutional factors such as "rule of law", "control of corruption", "political stability", and "broadband infrastructure" have a positive and significant correlation with the delocalization of Italian enterprises to the East European Countries. The results in this case suggest that Italian companies are looking for an environment in which the state knows how to enforce their own rules, but also a state that is somewhat "corruptible". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Captive offshoring is one of the most strategic approach in complex, dynamic and competitive global supply chains. In the present research, a rigorous decision-making model to identify captive offshoring drivers, that play a role in the company strategy and limiting the subjectivity of human decisions, has been proposed. Firstly, the Delphi method has been used to investigate and to identify criteria and sub-criteria that influence the captive offshoring strategy. Then, the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method has been employed to calculate the weight of importance of each criteria and sub-criteria. The purpose of this paper is to address the relevance of strategic capabilities for the operation of international manufacturing to the captive offshoring decision. A real case study on captive offshoring concerning an Italian manufacturing company has been analysed. This study adds to the limited number of studies on the identification of captive offshoring drivers and contributes to the quantitative research on this topic. From a practical perspective, the research highlights that multi-criteria decision methods are well indicated to select criteria and sub-criteria that influence the location choice. The result will help managers to make specific decisions concerning their current captive offshoring policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a two-country model (North and South) that describes the phenomenon of offshoring and reshoring. The model is a continuous time-controlled Markov chain with binary states. The main trade-off involves production costs and transaction costs between one country and another. In the first part of this paper, we identify the key parameters of the model: the difference in unit production costs between the two countries considered, the marginal cost of transitioning between countries, and the incentive paid by the North country to all companies that have not relocated at the end of the planning interval. The final goal of our paper is to understand how national tax incentives can influence this process.

The objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the factors that influence offshore location decisions from an institutional theory perspective. In the years, emerging economies have shown great growth potential and have attracted significant foreign direct investment, especially from companies willing to set up operations. Despite such a seemingly favourable trade environment, not all companies that entered an emerging economy have been successful. Thus, there is a need to understand the factors that influence the success of any offshore location decision. It is also important to understand the relative importance of these factors, in order to develop novel insights useful to practitioners. There is a lack of literature addressing this issue, which this study aims to fill. We conducted a multi-case analysis with examples of European companies entering India. The findings indicate that successful companies employed locally focused business strategies that enabled them to acquire important relationships and knowledge, and also to adapt to formal institutions, including governmental and regulatory procedures. It was found that, irrespective of size, disregarding collaborative strategies was the main reason for exiting India. These findings are highly relevant for managers and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Law enforcement and public health agencies operate in the context of their national government policies and resources. But improving and protecting health and community safety are made more difficult by four dark geopolitical forces which have been accelerating in recent years. Neoliberalism is driving governments to pursue low tax, low regulation small-state policies and aiding the expansion of uncontrolled globalization and colonialization of health-damaging manufacturing and services by multinational companies. The “Sovereign individuals,” first described in 1997, are the super-rich who have mastery over information technologies to avoid taxes and hide their wealth from governments. The vast offshoring of wealth has led to increasing inequalities in wealth and health, between rich and poor, further adding to civil distrust and unrest. Loss of revenues prevents government funding of health, welfare, and public protection whilst creating greater need for it. To explain the increasing poverty and harshness of life for the masses, there has been a rebirth and rise of populism. This has accelerated political corruption, created culture wars, fomented distrust of others, and added to global political instability. The information revolution has influenced all of these: it has created its own dark geopolitical force through the explosion of social media and industrial disinformation undermining individual critical thinking and democratic processes. Law enforcement and public health agencies face the consequences of these dark forces in their daily work, but they also need to understand more and develop more effective partnership responses to counter the worst excesses of the new geopolitical realities.

Background: With global changes in markets and government regulations, most organizations, which previously opted for offshore production, began to return to their country of origin—a process called reshoring. The new strategies for locating units and business models, which involve decisions to outsource production and organizational capacity, now face a new context of Industry 4.0, a market for technologies with the potential to transform entire supply chains in addition to directly influencing organizational aspects with innovative solutions and resource efficiency. Methods: This systematic literature review (SLR) found 43 articles relating to reshoring and Industry 4.0; there was an increase in publications in the last few years. We divided the studies according to 9 aspects: market uncertainties and labor supply; support for managerial decision making; competitive priorities analysis (costs and efficiency); business strategies; information knowledge and collaboration management; political, social and economic changes; risk security and privacy management; supply chain management; and investment market and private equity funds. Results: This article presents a content analysis of articles in the field of administration, focusing on location strategies, technology adoption, and organizational changes. The study identifies key aspects such as research quality, publication trends, regional focus, and strategy topics. The findings emphasize the importance of research objectives and problem-solving for managerial decision-making and highlight the need for further exploration in the literature. Conclusions: Reshoring, Industry 4.0, and location strategies are relevant topics for global management. The supply chain plays a role in decision-making for location and technology adoption, suggesting the need for more research in supply chain management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of offshoring has become a prominent topic in contemporary economic discussions, closely tied to globalization and communication. Offshoring involves importing input items from foreign countries at a lower cost, enabling cost-effective production. However, it raises concerns among workers regarding job loss and wage reduction. The aspect of collective bargaining, crucial in understanding the dynamics of offshoring, has often been overlooked in previous research. This journal paper aims to address this research gap by examining the impact of collective bargaining on determining equilibrium wages in the context of offshoring. Through a comprehensive analysis of three cases²Autarky, Small Country, and a two-country scenario²we explore how fluctuations in offshoring costs influence employment levels and wage rates. Additionally, we investigate the policy implications of offshoring decisions in one country and their effects on its partner country. The study also considers the role of skill acquisition in the offshoring process and its multifaceted impact on the labor market. By shedding light on the influence of collective bargaining in determining equilibrium wages within the offshoring framework, this research provides valuable insights for policymakers, academics, and industry practitioners. The findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities surrounding offshoring and its implications for the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The build strategy of a ship specifies what is to be produced how, when, where and with what resources. Although it has been emphasised to play an important role in determining shipbuilding time and cost, scientific research on build strategy is limited. In this study, we focus on three interrelated build strategic factors of particular importance in European shipbuilding: hull production offshoring, pre-erection outfitting and the overlap between engineering and production. The study investigates how each of these three factors relates to physical ship production time and to total ship delivery time from contract signing to delivery. We use multiple linear regression on data about European shipyards and the ships they have built, which were obtained from a questionnaire and ship databases. The sample consists of 76 specialised ships, predominantly offshore support vessels, fishing vessels, ferries and other non-cargo carrying vessels, built at 24 European yards. The results provide evidence that yards practicing hull production offshoring have shorter ship production and delivery times than yards building the hulls at their own premises, even though the practice of offshoring itself is likely to have an adverse effect on shipbuilding time. The study also found a significant relationship between the level of pre-erection outfitting and physical production time. On the other hand, overlapping engineering and production only seems to have a limited impact on the production and the delivery time. Several of our results challenge established thinking and provide new insights into the factors affecting production and delivery time in European shipbuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of outsourcing to low-cost countries, companies are restructuring their production footprint globally. Especially having experienced supply chain disruption caused by the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic for the past several years, many multinational companies are considering bringing their operations back home (i.e., reshoring). At the same time, the U.S. government proposes using tax penalties to motivate companies to reshore. In this paper, we study how a global supply chain adjusts its offshoring and reshoring production decisions under two different circumstances: (1) under traditional corporate tax regulations; (2) under the proposed tax penalty regulations. We analyze cost variants, tax structures, market access and production risks to identify conditions where global companies decide to bring manufacturing back to their domestic countries. Our results show that multinational companies would be more likely to relocate the production from the main foreign country to an alternative country that enjoys even lower production costs under the proposed tax penalty. As identified by our analysis and as well as numerical simulations, reshoring can only occur in rare situations such as when the production costs in the foreign countries are close to that in the domestic country. Besides potential national tax reform, we also discuss the impact of the Global Minimum Tax Rate proposed by the G7 on global companies' offshoring/reshoring decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Kavilando is the property of Kavilando and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Government authorities and the media regularly show great interest in offshoring due to its role in manufacturing employment’s decline, in particular. However, it remains difficult to quantify company offshoring given that it can be defined in multiple ways. This article updates the literature’s previous research while proposing a new and improved methodological framework for identifying offshoring, based on machine learning methods applied to INSEE’s Chaînes d’activité mondiales (CAM) survey. Our analysis, which covers 1995–2018, shows that the number of offshoring companies has decreased slightly following the global financial crisis of 2009. We show that offshoring is procyclical and describe the characteristics of the offshored jobs and offshoring companies. A causal econometric estimate of the annual average number of jobs offshored indicates offshoring’s continuing macroeconomic influence on the dynamics of French manufacturing employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]