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The first aim of the chapter is to offer a characterization of back-reshoring as a possible step of the firm’s nonlinear internationalization process. The second aim is to review the empirical literature on back-reshoring and to complement it with the findings of an extensive data collection.

In this chapter we adopted an explorative approach building on both theoretical and empirical literature from the fields of international business and international operations Management. We also collected secondary data on back-reshoring decisions in order to define the magnitude of the investigated phenomenon and to offer a primary characterization.

Our findings confirm that, though it cannot be considered a generalized trend, back-reshoring is a very topical issue for international business scholars. It represents an autonomous phenomenon consistent with the idea of nonlinear internationalization process.

The chapter is based on cross-sectional data. Longitudinal research is required in order to address the proposed research questions and help understanding “how much” and what kind of manufacturing will be housed in western countries in the near future.

This is the first attempt to conceptualize back-reshoring as a possible step of the firms’ internationalization process. It is also the first chapter that summarizes and discusses the literature and empirical evidence on back-reshoring emerging from a wide range of countries.

This paper aims to simultaneously examine the impact of three types of supply chain integration (SCI) on three types of company performance from the perspective of organizational capability.

Using data collected from 617 companies in China and the structural equation modelling method, the research investigates the relationships among internal integration, customer integration, supplier integration, supplier‐oriented performance, customer‐oriented performance, and financial performance from the perspective of organizational capability.

The results show that internal integration improves external integration and that internal and external integration directly and indirectly enhance company performance. In addition, full or partial mediating effects among SCI and company performance are identified, and therefore explain the inconsistent findings in previous studies regarding the impacts of SCI on performance.

This study contributes to SCI, organizational capability theory literature, and SCI practices.

Despite much progress in the field of family business research, there is still no unequivocal quantitative evidence on how many family businesses are generally transferred within the family and how many are sold to nonfamily members. Accordingly, the purpose of our paper is to overcome this data problem and to try to get a better estimate of these rates.

To determine a better estimate of intrafamily successions in Germany, we conducted a meta-analysis of 33 samples from 27 studies covering 75,522 firms facing or having already faced a business transfer.

Our results indicate that 62% of these family firms are (planned to be) transferred to family members. This type of industry strongly determines the mode of succession. However, methodological issues like study quality and sample design also influence estimated succession rates.

Policymakers need robust statistics so they can base their actions and economic policies on reliable information. However, in the absence of official statistics – as in the case of family firms handing over their company within or outside the family – information is difficult to generate. Our findings provide a generalizable estimate of prevalence rates, providing German policymakers, and those in other countries when applying these methods, with useful information.

This paper suggests that a theory of family firm succession needs to consider more deeply the context in which succession decisions occur. By exploring variables affecting succession rates such as firm size and industry but also methodological issues like sample design and study quality, our analysis also provides a better understanding of central determinants of successions within and outside the family.

Firms innovate and sophisticate their offerings to remain competitive. This sophistication often finds opportunities in servitization. Given that many customers expect the service offering from manufacturing companies, it is crucial to research what capabilities drive service offerings and their impact on performance. The purpose of this paper is to test the capabilities–service–performance chain.

A conceptual model is proposed and the research hypothesis is tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) performed on a data set corresponding to 205 Spanish and Croatian manufacturing firms.

Using SEM, this research analyses the causal model between manufacturing, organizational and digital capabilities on base, intermediate and advanced services, and their impact on both service and financial performance.

This study has some limitations: the advanced service construct was mostly developed on case-based research. Some constructs have low convergent validity and reliability. The relative smallness of the data set used and its two-country provenance could raise issues about the international nature and generalizability of the findings.

Digital capabilities are important for the provision of all three groups of services in terms of using digital devices in data acquisition, helping to make the manufacturing company more agile.

The present study also contributes to the conceptual framework of servitization by providing a new and more up-to-date definition of capabilities and services, also considering digital capabilities, which are less explored. It also contributes to being the first to explore the entire manufacturing sector [nomenclature statistique des activités and économiques dans la Communauté éuropéenne (NACE) 10–31].

Although organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is widely known to have a positive ethical impact in work organizations, the causal antecedents that influence the likelihood of such behaviors among employees is understudied. We addressed this gap by examining the influence of visual images of people on relevant work-related behavior in a work-like setting using the theoretical frame of the social identity perspective. We found that students in a university setting, who were exposed to religious-themed student images, exhibited slower helping behaviors toward the organization than those who were exposed to organizational-themed student images. The results of the current study provide the first-known experimental confirmation of organizational identity as a causal antecedent of OCB.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of a dynamic analysis of the development and management of strategic capabilities and resources in manufacturing. It aims to present dynamic resource/capability systems as a means to understand an issue from manufacturing strategy.

A case study from a standard textbook on manufacturing strategy is used to illustrate the approach that is mainly based on Warren's strategy dynamics. Extensions to this approach are introduced.

Diagrams of dynamic resource/capability systems are valuable tools for understanding issues of interconnected and changing strategic resources and capabilities. Resources and capabilities can be interpreted as stocks in dynamic simulation models following ideas from system dynamics.

The exact nature of strategic capabilities and their relationships needs to be further investigated. Approaches need to be developed to measure and to quantify these concepts. The connection between Hill's order winners/qualifiers and the inflows/outflows of capability and resource stocks should be further examined.

Static analyses of strategic issues are often difficult to interpret. The dynamic nature of strategic issues needs to be reflected in the tools used for analysing them.

Applies a dynamic analysis to manufacturing strategy and uses a textbook example in a new way to illustrate the relevance of the approach.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to evaluate the claim that consumers are willing to compromise on taste in order to obtain the potential health benefits from functional snacks; and second, to investigate the effect of expectations for the snacks, blind tasting and product information on hedonic judgments and willingness to pay (WTP).

A sample of 160 subjects was recruited to participate in a lab experiment that combined hedonic evaluations and a series of non-hypothetical second-price Vickrey auctions, under blind or informed tasting conditions. Participants were also asked to complete a questionnaire about consumer preferences, purchasing habits and demographics.

Results indicate that tasting and information have economically and statistically significant effects on overall food assessment with respect to prior product expectations. Provision of information regarding functional food components shortly before consumption makes consumers less strict on their taste evaluation and increases their WTP. This indicates that consumers are willing to partly sacrifice the pleasure of taste in order to improve the healthfulness of their diet. When information is provided after taste, it only exerts influence with respect to the carob-based snack. Furthermore, blind tasting has a negative effect on liking, irrespective of the product being evaluated. Finally, the econometric results reveal that older respondents tend to bid higher for functional snacks.

This study contributes to the existing literature not only on the basis of the novelty of results but also on the methodological front, since it showcases the combined use of hedonic tests and auctions with real monetary incentives as a state of the art technique on eliciting consumers’ overall assessment for functional snacks. It also highlights important elements in the toolkit that marketers can use to influence products’ perceived health benefits, and thus consumption choices.