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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current situation of China's local valve industry, the maturity of intelligent manufacturing and the way to promote intellectual development.

Firstly, a macro analysis of the valve market environment from the domestic and international perspective was conducted. Secondly, online surveys and in-depth interviews were administered to understand the current status of IM development and future development goals. Finally, case studies were conducted to demonstrate whether the hypothesis of the development approach is feasible.

This study finds that the overall maturity level of the local valve industry is still in the planning stage since the local valve industry lacks concentration and is relatively scattered. In addition, the feasible development approach is dependent on smart devices to improve production efficiency, ensure quality management and effectively control costs.

The research is conducted and focused on the Yangtze River Delta region instead of the whole country, and the size of the sample is small. Therefore, there may be some characteristics omitted in the analysis.

Manufacturers can upgrade to smart manufacturing through intelligent software platforms in order to complete an automatic interaction of data and devices. In addition, manufacturers should complete cross-regional collaborative development through the industrial Internet of things.

There is little or none of research work completed for the development strategy of the valve industry internationally. Therefore, research findings of this area can provide a fundamental understanding of China's local valve industry and contribute to the existing knowledge.

Supply chain (SC) configuration has gained increased acceptance as an important issue when evaluating new customization possibilities and this evidence has contributed to the strengthening of the debate between global vs local production locations. This work contributes in enrichment of this topic by studying how local or global SC location decisions influence performances by considering a SC point of view, in terms of cost and time, in traditional and customized productions.

A discrete event simulation approach, based on experimentation through executable configurations, was used to evaluate different SC scenarios for customized as well as traditional products within the footwear industry.

The results indicated that to identify proper SC locations, existing trade-offs between the time and cost performances should be studied, avoiding the evaluation of a single performance independently and, instead, adopting a complete SC point of view while considering these performances.

This evidence has contributed to the reinforcement of the discussion between far-shore destinations vs near-shore production locations. Further studies are encouraged to adopt the present model, in which addition of other variables such as specific manufacturing competences to differentiate suppliers, both local and global suppliers, or the possibility of realizing special types of product customization required by final consumers can be done.

The paper contributes to the academic and practitioners' debate by proposing a systemic approach to assess SCs’ performances in customized contexts and to compare them to traditional collections. Results indicate that cost and time performance must find a balance that does not necessarily correspond to an exclusively local or global production.

This work contributes to the SC configuration issue by considering the trade-off between efficiency and effectiveness (i.e. SC costs and SC times) for customized productions by reviving and enriching it with an SC perspective in customization contexts.

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.

The development of a local area supply chain network (LASCaN) is only as good as the skills and technological capabilities of the companies within that network. Recent studies have pointed to the lack of capability amongst local suppliers and hence many OEMs have now moved towards global supplier networks to meet demand. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the drivers which push companies to develop global supplier networks.

Through the development of a case study approach, the paper chronicles the design, development and implementation of a supplier development programme (SDP). The programme is subsequently evaluated for its effectiveness in the subject company.

The LASCaN is evaluated rigorously and describes accurately the effectiveness of the system and how the integration of the LASCaN into the global network allows the company to meet the demands of a fluctuating, mass customised market.

The proposed SDP framework for the successful development of a LASCaN contributes to the existing knowledge base on supply chain systems and subsequently disseminates this information in order to provide impetus, guidance and support towards increasing the development of local suppliers in an attempt to move the UK SME sector towards world class manufacturing performance.

The emergence of distributed manufacturing (DM) is examined as a new form of localised production, distinct from previous manifestations of multi-domestic and indigenous production.

Supply network (SN) configuration and infrastructural provisioning perspectives were used to examine the literature on established localised production models as well as DM. A multiple case study was then undertaken to describe and explore the DM model further. A maximum variation sampling procedure was used to select five exemplar cases.

Three main contributions emerge from this study. First, the research uniquely brings together two bodies of literature, namely SN configuration and infrastructure provisioning to explore the DM context. Second, the research applies these theoretical lenses to establish the distinctive nature of DM across seven dimensions of analysis. Third, emerging DM design rules are identified and compared with the more established models of localised production, drawing on both literature and DM case evidence.

This study provides a rich SN configuration and infrastructural provisioning view on DM leading to a set of design rules for DM adoption, thus supporting practitioners in their efforts to develop viable DM implementation plans.

The authors contribute to the intra- and inter-organisational requirements for the emerging DM context by providing new perspectives through the combined lenses of SN configuration and infrastructural provisioning approaches.

• After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:• Identify the difference between core competencies and dynamic capabilities and how they make a difference in a crisis towards building an agile organisation.• Evaluate the support through a collaborative, temporary, trans-organisational system to local manufacturers to achieve agility and sustainability.• Realise the importance of clear expectations exchange and communication between partners to enhance collaboration, even in temporary structures in increasing agility and sustainability.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns created a crisis for South Africa and the President, Cyril Ramaphosa called for urgent collaboration between business, labour and government to meet the demand for locally produced Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical devices. The case illustrates this response and collaboration between government, labour and business through a temporary newly formed structure, called Business for South Africa (B4SA). Ross Boyd, Head of the innovation work stream of B4SA which housed the local manufacturing partnership (LMP) was considering his dilemma of how to be agile in sustaining their support to the South African manufacturers even though the LMP was a temporary structure. The local manufacturers had to repurpose their production lines to produce local PPE and medical devices. How could the LMP support the South African manufacturers to sustain their agility in building capabilities during COVID-19? At the same time, Ahmed Dhai, the Group Executive of Operations of Kingsgate Clothing, which was benefiting from the support of the LMP, was reflecting on his leadership in taking decisions to repurpose production and increase capacity during COVID-19. Dhai was considering his dilemma of being agile during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The case features several decisions taken by Kingsgate and offers students the opportunity to evaluate these decisions given the fluctuations in supply and demand of PPE and the leadership that Dhai demonstrated in how he communicated and dealt with his staff during the pandemic. Students could also give recommendations to Ross Boyd and Ahmed Dhai on how they could lead their organisations to be more agile during and beyond COVID-19.

The case study is suitable for MBA or MPhil level on Strategy courses. The case would also find good application in Organisational Behaviour and Leadership courses on Masters level and Executive Education programmes.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

This article explores a particular on-demand fabrication unit, the microfactory (MF). It identifies and contrasts several MFs and proposes a taxonomy. This research also explores online manufacturing platforms (OMP) that complement certain MFs.

This research implements a multiple case study (71 cases in 21 countries), triangulating data available on the web with interviews, virtual/physical tours and experiential research.

The results suggest that automation and openness are the main dimensions that differentiate the MFs. Using these dimensions, a taxonomy of MFs is created. MFs with relatively low automation and high openness tend to be innovation-driven microfactories (IDMFs). MFs with high automation and low openness levels tend to be customization-driven microfactories (CDMFs). And MFs with relatively low automation and low openness tend to be classic machine shops (MSs). There are two types of OMP: closed (COMPs) and multisided (MOMPs). MOMPs can be low-end or high-end.

In a world where online platforms are becoming central to the reinvention of manufacturing, multisided online platforms and small fabricators will become strongly symbiotic.

This paper offers a clearer conceptualization of MFs and OMPs, which may help to better understand the reality of local on-demand fabrication. Moreover, it explores a new type of experiential research, which tries to describe and interpret firms through transactional activities. Many details of a firm that are difficult to capture via interviews and netnography can be revealed this way.

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) initiative poses both significant opportunities and difficult challenges to the Malaysian SME communities. This study aims to investigate the preparedness of the local SMEs to compete and exploit opportunities in a post-AEC era. The aim is to contribute to existing literature and knowledge base on SMEs’ practices in the ASEAN region. The manufacturing sector has been selected for study, and the research efforts focus on procurement competencies. SME procurement practices in the two largest manufacturing sub-sectors in Malaysia – resource-based (RB) and electrical and electronics (E&E) – are explored.

Preparedness for AEC is gauged from four key performance areas summarized from literature review. Six key research activities are also identified for each performance area from the findings of previous works. Data were collected using a survey instrument and face-to-face interviews. Research methodology is primarily qualitative with quantitative data for robustness check.

The findings reveal peculiar procurement practices in Malaysian SME manufacturers that have significant implications on their preparedness to compete effectively post-AEC. The findings also highlighted the key influences that have contributed to variations in Malaysian SMEs’ attitude toward trade liberalization challenges and business process improvements in comparison with practices in foreign firms and more advanced economies.

Theoretical models have been adopted across business settings and environments by managers. This study reveals managerial practices in Malaysian SME manufacturers run counter to developed theories. The peculiarities and business attitudes of this resilient economic sector can be an important input to managerial decision-making when analyzing business activities in the region.

Identifies factors influencing the adaptation of manufacturing processes for international transfer. Proposes that these factors should be divided into those affecting the operation of the process in its new location, and those that influence the transfer itself. This differentiation generates three constructs which characterize a manufacturing process: appropriateness, robustness, and transferability. Individually, they inform practitioners on questions of process adaptation, location selection, training, and technology choice. Together they describe the ease with which a manufacturing process can be transferred: its fitness for transfer.