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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.

Based on in-depth case studies from a high-cost environment, we identify context-specific aspects as important motivating factors for decision-makers re-evaluating the previous offshoring decisions. This chapter sheds light on the complexity of backshoring motives by adding a meso level, illustrating how case companies’ sourcing decisions evolve alongside the institutional context at a regional level. Further, the chapter provides a deeper understanding of the motives that underlay backshoring decisions and argues that these motivating factors differ from a broader set of drivers that can be found within the existing frameworks of backshoring.

Defined as local manufacturing systems, industrial districts have been recognized as particularly important for the location of firms’ manufacturing activities intertwined with innovation processes. The debate on the internationalization of production has stressed the low value related to manufacturing within value chain activities (smile framework), emphasizing the need to focus on high value-added activities (R&D or marketing). Following multinational enterprises’ internationalization strategies, also district firms have progressively offshored their production phases in the past years. However, recent studies focused on backshoring have revamped the attention on the domestic control of production for firms’ competitiveness. This chapter explores district firms’ location choices for manufacturing activities between local and global. Based on an empirical analysis of about 260 Italian district firms specialized in mechanics, furniture, and fashion and supported by a case study investigation, our results show that despite district internationalization processes, a non-negligible amount of firms still carry out – in-house or through outsourcing – production activities at district level. Larger firms couple district production and long-term upstream outsourced internationalization activities. The district system confirms its role of pooling specialized competences and product know-how, being decisive for firms’ innovation and responsiveness to national and international markets. Backshoring, instead, is a very limited phenomenon and linked to upgrading strategies.

Global businesses base their sourcing operations and manufacturing decisions primarily on financial principles and metrics. What is often disregarded is the strategic value of domestic locations and contextual tacit knowledge. However, recent empirical work on knowledge flows shows that proximity is crucial. The risk of losing knowledge and important competencies developed through generations within companies and value chains needs to be considered when developing a global sourcing strategy. This chapter sheds light on how global shift-backs, through backshoring are seen to affect organizations that are located in a high-cost country. Based on interviews with managers and key personnel within a specific industry, we explore how companies preserve innovative capabilities when considering closing down (captive) offshore centers or when embarking on a backshoring strategy. The implications derived from the case offers valuable insights into how organizational capabilities could be restored when companies bring manufacturing back.

The contemporary dynamics impose companies to both innovate and internationalize at the same time while remaining competitive in the international marketplace. With this context in mind, Industry 4.0 technologies have the potential to increase the competitiveness of companies, leading to a new era of “Manufacturing Renaissance.” Recently, conceptual studies have speculated on possible impacts of the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in terms of international business. However, empirical studies on this topic are still lacking. Through a multiple case study approach, this study presents exploratory qualitative research investigating the relationship between Industry 4.0 and the internationalization of companies. The analysis of 16 Italian manufacturing exporting companies, which have adopted some of these technologies, has revealed a more intriguing relationship compared to the one presented in current literature, and thus has opened avenues for future research on this issue.

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.

In February 2020, Covid-19 health crisis severely hit Italy and then spread around the world. To contrast the spreading of the virus, the whole country was initially forced in a strict lockdown, with people closed in their houses and companies shutting down their activities. Although the spread of vaccinations is slowly bringing back a sort of normality, the crisis has immediate and long-term effects. Moreover, it has shown the vulnerabilities of managing businesses on a global scale, alerting internationalizing firms about the necessity to adapt their strategic asset to face the next crisis. This chapter aims at stimulating reflections on the potential interactions among the Covid-19 crisis, digitalization and the localization decisions. Through quantitative and qualitative data related to Italian internationalizing firms, this research shows that, thanks to digitalization, value chain activities localized abroad are expected to become more geographically concentrated, while headquarters perform stronger control and coordination activities on less autonomous business functions abroad. Drawing on in-depth interviews, companies reconsidered their long-term strategies, showing that some reactions to the crisis may suggest potential rising trends in specific industries.

Ownership and location decisions are at the core of the development of multinational enterprises (MNEs) as they deeply impact the creation and appropriation of value in global value chains. Such decisions have been treated by extant literature mostly as oppositions characterized by trade-off alternatives, such as internalization versus externalization and domestic versus offshoring. In this chapter, we discuss the development of a multinational company, that is, De’Longhi, as it has adjusted both ownership and location choices several times over the last 15 years. The case shows that in growing firms, such as De’Longhi, ownership and location decisions are interrelated among each other and with several factors including: interdependences between value chain activities, corporate strategy, organizational culture and the time horizon of the above choices.