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Production activities affect environmental and social pillars of firm’s sustainability. Therefore, decisions regarding where products are manufactured have a tremendous impact on a firm’s sustainability. However, until now, interdependencies among back-shoring decisions and sustainability issues have been rarely addressed. This paper aims to fill this research gap and develop avenues for future research.

The paper adopts an explorative approach based on a two-steps desk research strategy. In the first one, a structured literature review is implemented analysing 105 Scopus documents published up to August 2018. In the second step, empirical evidence of manufacturing back-shoring decisions coming from secondary sources is analysed and discussed.

The investigated research questions shed new light on the “how” back-shoring decisions are taken and implemented. The structured review and the empirical evidence show that environmental and social sustainability issues are increasingly assuming certain relevance for the academic debate and managerial decisions.

The structured analysis of the selected literature and the empirical evidence sorted by the UnivAQ Manufacturing Reshoring Dataset clearly shows that neither scholars nor firms’ managers and entrepreneurs considered the environmental and social pillars of sustainability as the most relevant in terms of back-shoring drivers/motivation, outcome/benefit and/or barrier/enabler.

The paper suggests policymakers that sustainability-based legislations may influence – and support – the firm’s decision to backshore. At the same time, policymakers should carefully reflect on the role of market labour laws and ensure that relocations are not based on “informal subcontracting and informal employment”. At the same time, the paper suggest managers to adopt a “progressive” and/or a “selective” approach when implementing reshoring decisions based (also) on sustainability issues.

Even if other authors suggest that sustainability issues may be relevant for the reshoring decisions, this is the first attempt to define the base of knowledge on this topic and to suggest avenues for further research.

The advantages of offshoring are increasingly under scrutiny, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has advanced the debate, calling for a redefinition of firms' production location strategies. While attention has primarily focused on the relocation of second-degree strategies, such as back-shoring, near-shoring and further offshoring, there are also other alternatives, including home country-based domestic product and process innovations, and the development of new business activities. The objective of the authors' paper is to identify which factors influence decision-makers when they select and implement such post-offshoring strategic alternatives.

The authors consider 11 Italian manufacturing companies that implemented these strategies and analyze triggers, drivers, enabling factors and barriers of the decision phase, as well as content, governance mode and timing of the implementation phase.

Based on the collected findings, the authors suggest a set of propositions for further research. First of all, firms can simultaneously manage multiple strategies by adopting an ambidextrous approach through which to mitigate supply chain risks. They may integrate their domestic and international production activities, but the home country remains central for innovations and production of high-end products and Industry 4.0 technologies increases the probability of investing in their home country. At the same time, lack of competence induces selective near- and back-shoring, while full back-shoring is mainly a consequence of managerial mistakes. Competence availability acts as a barrier to relocation in the home country, inducing the implementation of either an insourcing strategy or a combination of insourcing and outsourcing.

The authors' work identifies post-offshoring as a dynamic process and provides insights into the post-pandemic scenario. The conceptual framework may represent a useful tool for company managers in re-evaluating their initial offshoring strategies.

Manufacturing offshoring has received substantial attention within international business studies that have explored where activities are located and how they are governed. However, recent examples of manufacturing relocation to the home country/region have put the advantages of offshoring under scrutiny, since the location of production activities in high-cost countries may have positive impacts in terms of innovation and marketing opportunities. Despite the growing interest in offshoring and “relocations of second degree,” there is a lack of knowledge on the alternative strategies firms may implement after offshoring. This chapter aims to propose a comprehensive framework to summarize and classify the multiple alternatives firms may implement after the initial relocation abroad of manufacturing activities. Based on an extensive literature review and a comparative analysis of Italian case studies, the chapter suggests theoretical advancement in the theory of location of business activities, offering multiple post-offshoring strategic options that may be implemented individually or in combination. In so doing, the analysis also stresses the variety of strategic paths and the complexity of choices concerning manufacturing location, emphasizing reshoring as a nuanced phenomenon and exploring how domestic and foreign locations can complement each other and be mutually reinforcing.

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.

The past three decades have seen the transformation of manufacturing involving its global dispersion and fragmentation. However, a number of recent developments appear to suggest that manufacturing may be entering a new era of flux that will impact the configuration of production around the globe. The purpose of this paper is to address the major emerging themes that may shape this configuration and concludes that most of them are still in their initial stages and are not likely to create a radical shift in the next few years in how manufacturing is configured around the world. These themes were presented in a special session on “Manufacturing in the World – Where Next?” at the 2013 EurOMA Conference in Dublin, Ireland.

The paper provides a series of perspectives on some key considerations pertaining to the future of manufacturing. An evaluation of their likely impact is offered and insights for the future of manufacturing are presented.

The importance of a focus on the extended manufacturing network is established. The need for customer engagement and a forward looking approach that extends to the immediate customer and beyond emerges as a consistent feature across the different perspectives presented in the paper. There is both the potential and need for the adoption of innovative business models on the part of manufacturers.

The paper presents in-depth perspectives from scholars in the field of manufacturing on the changing landscape of manufacturing. These perspectives culminate in a series of insights on the future of global manufacturing that inform future research agendas and help practitioners in formulating their manufacturing strategies.

Backshoring keeps gaining popularity with consultancies, politicians and businesses alike, yet academic research lags behind this seemingly increasing practice. Through a narrative, critical overview of literature the paper demonstrates incipient nature of backshoring research and identifies international business and economic geography as most relevant disciplines in furthering the understanding of the phenomenon and its managerial, policy and developmental significance.

The number of firms which backshored some or all of their activities from locations abroad appears to be growing, however due to unavailability of reliable data it is difficult to accurately assess how common backshoring is. There is a problem even with estimating the scale of the phenomenon which stems from the fact that the concept remains to be ill-defined. Consequently, current research is dominated by contradicting observations disallowing meaningful conclusion. However it is such shortcomings which arguably offer an unmissable opportunity for theory testing and development, and contribution to managerial practice and policy design.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for the analysis of reshoring. The framework is then applied to analyze motivations for reshoring, as they emerge from extant literature and from new evidence collected.

The authors start by formulating a literature-grounded definition of reshoring and reviewing some key theoretical approaches for international manufacturing location. In light of these theories, the authors then propose an interpretative framework for the analysis of reshoring motivations. Finally, the authors provide new evidence on this phenomenon, by presenting the findings of an extensive data collection of reshoring cases built on secondary data.

The authors show that a vast array of single drivers of reshoring can be extracted from extant literature; however, the interpretative framework eventually highlights four main typologies of reshoring motivations, thus allowing for a more sound comprehension of why the phenomenon happens. The empirical investigation proves also useful in comparing the relative importance of these motivations, as it reveals that value-driven and country-specific motivations prevail over efficiency-driven and firm-specific ones, respectively.

The study is based on the analyses of secondary data extracted from newspapers and magazine sources. Some motivations (and especially those that configure a “correction of a previous erroneous decision”) could have been underestimated. In addition, certain industries (e.g. clothing and footwear), certain countries (USA and China), and certain firms (large companies and MNCs) could have more visibility to the media. Another possible limitation is due to the fact that the classification work inherently implied some discretion and individual judgment. The authors however spent considerable efforts in cross-validating the assessments through extensive discussion within the research team.

This is the first paper that summarizes the motivations of the rising reshoring phenomenon and interprets them based on an original theory-derived classification framework.

This research proposes a viable method of slab and shore load computation for the partial striking technique utilized in high-rise construction projects to optimize the use of horizontal formwork. The proposed Partial Striking Simplified Method (PSSM) is designed to be utilized by industry practitioners to schedule the construction operations of casting floors in order to control the formwork costs incurred throughout the completion of a project.

The article presents the PSSM for calculating slab and shore loads in multi-story building construction. It introduces the concept of “clearing before striking,” where shore supports are partially removed after a few days of pouring fresh concrete. The PSSM procedure is validated through numerical analysis and compared to other simplified approaches. Additionally, a user-friendly Python program based on the PSSM procedure is developed to explore the capability of the PSSM procedure and is used to study the variations in slab load, shoring level, concrete grade and cycle time.

The study successfully developed a more efficient and reliable method for estimating the loads on shores and slabs using partial striking techniques for multi-story building construction. Compared to other simplified approaches, the PSSM procedure is simpler and more precise, as demonstrated through numerical analysis. The mean of shore and slab load ratios are 1.08 and 1.07, respectively, which seems to have a slight standard deviation of 0.29 and 0.21 with 3D numerical analysis. The Python program developed for load estimation is effective in exploring the capability of the proposed PSSM procedure. The Python program's ability to identify the floor under maximum load and determine the specific construction stage provides valuable insights for multi-story construction, enabling informed decision-making and optimization of construction methods.

High-rise construction in Indian cities is booming, though this trend is not shared by all the country's major metropolitan areas. The growing construction sector in urban cities demands rapid construction for efficient utilization of formwork to control the construction costs of project. The proposed procedure is the best option to optimize the formwork construction cost, construction cycle time, the suitable formwork system with optimum cost, concrete grade for the adopted level of shoring in partaking and many more.

The proposed PSSM reduces the calculation complexity of the existing simplified method. This is done by considering the identical slab stiffness and identical shore layout for uniform load distribution throughout the structure. This procedure utilizes a two-step load distribution calculation for clearing phase. Initially, the 66% prop load of highest floor level is distributed uniformly over the lower interconnected slabs. In the second step, the total prop load is removed equally from all slabs below it. This makes the load distribution user-friendly for the industry expert.

This study aims to examine decision factors for global sourcing, differentiated into transcontinental and continental sourcing to obtain insight into locational aspects of sourcing decisions and global trends. This study analyzed various country perceptions to reveal their influence on sourcing decisions. The country of origin (COO) theory explains why certain country perceptions and images influence purchasing experts in their selection of suppliers.

This study used a two-study approach. In Study 1, the authors conducted discrete choice card experiments with 71 purchasing experts located in Europe and the USA to examine the importance of essential decision factors for global sourcing. Given the clear evidence that location is a factor in sourcing decisions, in Study 2 the authors investigated purchasers’ perceptions and images of countries, adding country ranking experiments on various perceived characteristics such as quality, price and technology.

Study 1 provides evidence that the purchasers’ personal relationship with the supplier plays a decisive role in the supplier selection process. While product quality and location impact sourcing decisions, the attraction of the buying company and cultural barriers are less significant. Interestingly, however, these factors seem as important as price to respondents. This implies that a strong relationship with suppliers and good quality products are essential aspects of a reliable and robust supply chain in the post-COVID-19 era. Examining the locational aspect in detail, Study 2 linked the choice card experiments with country ranking experiments. In this study, the authors found that purchasing experts consider that transcontinental countries such as Japan and China offer significant advantages in terms of price and technology. China has enhanced its quality, which is recognizable in the country ranking experiments. Therefore, decisions on global sourcing are not just based on such high-impact factors as price and availability; country perceptions are also influential. Additionally, the significance of the locational aspect could be linked to certain country images of transcontinental suppliers, as the COO theory describes.

The new approach divides global sourcing into transcontinental and European sourcing to evaluate special decision factors and link these factors to the locational aspect of sourcing decisions. To deepen the clear evidence for the locational aspect and investigate the possible influence of country perceptions, the authors applied the COO theory. This approach enabled authors to show the strong influence of country perception on purchasing departments, which is represented by the locational effect. Hence, the success of transcontinental countries relies not only on factors such as their availability but also on the purchasers’ positive perceptions of these countries in terms of technology and price.