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Near sourcing is starting to be regarded as a valid alternative to global sourcing in order to leverage supply chain (SC) responsiveness and economic efficiency. The present work proposes a decision‐making approach developed in collaboration with a leading Italian retailer that was willing to turn the global store furniture procurement process into near sourcing.

Action research is employed. The limitations of the traditional SC organisation and purchasing process of the company are first identified. On such basis, an inventory management model is applied to run spreadsheet estimates where different purchasing and SC management strategies are adopted to determine the solution providing the lowest cost performance. Finally, a risk analysis of the selected best SC arrangement is conducted and results are discussed.

Switching from East Asian suppliers to continental vendors enables a SC reengineering that increases flexibility and responsiveness to demand uncertainty which, together with decreased transportation costs, assures economic viability, thus proving the benefits of near sourcing.

The decision‐making framework provides a methodological roadmap to address the comparison between near and global sourcing policies and to calculate the savings of the former against the latter. The approach could include additional organisational aspects and cost categories impacting on near sourcing and could be adapted to investigate different products, services, and business sectors.

The work provides SC researchers and practitioners with a structured approach for understanding what drives companies to adopt near sourcing and for quantitatively assessing its advantages.

Even the greatest developed countries have capitulated to the destructions imposed on the global supply systems, as the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed. The purpose of this study is to explore human resource sourcing strategies for managing supply chain performance during the COVID-19 outbreak. There are six human resource sourcing strategies such as outsourcing, near sourcing, integration, the requirement of suppliers, joint ventures and virtual enterprise that are considered to measure supply chain performance.

Based on collecting data from the potential respondents of Indian manufacturing companies, the elevation of human resource sourcing strategies to supply chain performance is measured considering the multiple regression analysis techniques.

The results of the study revealed that four of the six hypotheses have a significant and positive relationship with supply chain performance during the COVID-19 outbreak while two hypotheses are partially supported that lent good support to this study.

In this critical situation, this study will enable managers and practitioners to support the business in giving customers the best services on time.

The novelty of this study is to identify the key human resource sourcing strategies by using multiple regression analysis methods, considering the case of Indian manufacturing companies to measure their supply chain performance during the COVID-19 outbreak era.

Reshoring is one of the supply chain risk management techniques suggested in literature. However, literature suggests that the decision-making involved in reshoring is complex and not fully understood. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, reshoring may represent a way to reduce reliance on global sources and improve resilience of their supply chains. This paper aims to explore if the pandemic is driving reshoring decisions and if the pandemic will actually lead to companies reshoring parts of their supply chain.

This paper critically engages with senior(-most) supply chain managers from three manufacturing companies as they proceed through reshoring decision-making. This enables to develop experiential knowledge about reshoring decision-making processes and their context, as well as insights into the relevance of existing knowledge about reshoring. While not a full multiple case study, the opportunity to engage directly with senior(-most) supply chain managers as they consider reshoring, enables near real-time learning. Not only is reshoring a very timely topic literature has also called for more event-based empirical research. Further to that, it is hoped that this can complement this special issue and support, in a timely manner, the many researchers that are actively studying the impact of the pandemic on supply chains.

Reshoring was being actively considered by all three companies during the research process in Q3 and Q4 of 2020. During this period the pandemic has not yet led to substantial implementation of reshoring, at least by the companies studied in this paper. In response to tariffs on Chinese imports, companies had been diversifying their supply base away from China, but doing so by developing alternative, global sources. Additionally, companies are using alternative risk management techniques, such as supplier collaboration, in the short to medium term. Reshoring decision-making is indeed found to be complex and requires a longer-term time horizon for decision-making and implementation. Logistical challenges and growth in demand do drive a willingness of consumers to pay a premium for locally sourced products. However, when supply normalizes these considerations might lose relevance well before reshoring decision-making and implementation can be completed.

This paper studies reshoring in a real-world setting, learning directly from insights from industry as they emerge. This paper develops four extensions to existing knowledge, develop these in frameworks and hope that this will support ongoing consideration in industry and support the many researchers that are active in this domain today. This paper also suggests several directions for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to review the development of the empirical literature on international outsourcing of information technology services (ITS) over the 1992‐2007 period and to identify future research areas.

A sample of 78 empirical academic publications on international outsourcing of ITS conducted between 1992 and 2007 across 46 scholarly journals constitutes the main data for analytical purposes. The sample is compiled following extensive electronic searches of the main academic databases. After clustering the studies in the sample according to their main research areas, a narrative approach is used to review developments in each cluster and to identify emerging research areas.

Four main areas of research are identified, namely outsourcing decision, outsourcing management (OSM), outsourcing outcome and the role of offshore service providers (OSPs). The review suggests that research efforts to date have been predominantly on outsourcing decision and OSM, mostly from the perspective of clients. Future research opportunities exist in the areas of outsourcing strategy and performance, the behaviour and performance of OSPs particularly within the context of firms from less‐developed countries competing globally, and the nature of competition among OSPs both within and among countries.

This is the first review which focuses on empirical studies of outsourcing for ITS. This paper identifies several gaps in the literature and points to the need for more research on outsourcing from the perspective of OSPs.

This paper discloses the risk management response strategies and the perceived effectiveness of the strategies employed by companies operating within manufacturing clusters in Puerto Rico from 2016 until 2020, the second year of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The research design consists of questionnaire-based survey responses from companies belonging to manufacturing clusters, followed by semi-structured interviews and secondary sources of information.

The results reveal the risk responses used to manage specific risk types. Albeit respondents' dependency on an assortment of company-centric and cluster-bound risk response strategies, the perception is that the former is more effective when adequate local sources are available and the latter when the cluster has strong interconnectedness among the cluster's members.

Furthermore, there is a generalized belief that long-term cluster-bound strategies are required to complement individual companies' overall risk management strategies.

This paper demonstrated that due to the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) nature of the Caribbean region, mixed risk management might result in better and more favorable long-term performance.

In the uncertain business environment, the supply chains are under pressure to balance routine operations and prepare for adverse events. Consequently, this research investigates how artificial intelligence is used to enable resilience among supply chains.

This study first analyzed the relationship among different characteristics of AI-enabled supply chain and how these elements take it towards resilience by collecting the responses from 27 supply chain professionals. Furthermore, to validate the results, an empirical analysis is conducted where the responses from 231 supply chain professionals are collected.

Findings indicate that the disruption impact of an event depends on the degree of transparency kept and provided to all supply chain partners. This is further validated through empirical study, where the impact of transparency facilitates the mass customization of the procurement strategy to Last Mile Delivery to reduce the impact of disruption. Hence, AI facilitates resilience in the supply chain.

This study adds to the domain of supply chain and information systems management by identifying the driving and dependent elements that AI facilitates and further validating the findings and structure of the elements through empirical analysis. The research also provides meaningful implications for theory and practice.

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.

This paper aims to deliberate about the problem of tight and seamless integration in a supply chain by conceptualising and understanding how looseness and its creation represent an effective supply chain design.

This research is grounded in system theory and industrial network research, while the case study of a textile and garment supply network coordinated by a third party in Mexico empirically illustrates how looseness in the supply chain may be created. The information gathered through in-depth interviews with critical informants at Aztex and three of their suppliers, visits in situ and secondary information, was organised with the template analysis technique and interpreted from three different but complementary perspectives, system theory, supply chain coordination modes and industrial networks, to establish the particularities of the triad model.

The study shows that supply chain integration may take place in a variety of forms, and that new theoretical perspectives are required to understand how the looseness in the connections among actors contributes to the flexibility and efficiency of the chain. Additionally, the analysis of the case puts forward the trader’s crucial role as linking pin between suppliers and customers in the specific context of the garment sector.

Additional cases and triangulation of information from traders, suppliers and customers would contribute to explore in more detail how integration takes place not only in the textile and garment industry sector but also in other industries.

A rational explanation of why establish full integration across several tiers of suppliers and customers is too difficult to attain is given to managers. They may recognise that tight couplings will be necessary and possible only with strategic counterparts; meanwhile, others are more suitable to be delegated to a third party.

The economic and industrial stability and progress of low-cost sourcing countries depends on the selection of international purchasers. The advancement of triangle manufacturing facilitated by a trader may become another criterion to drive the selection towards a region. In the case of Mexico, this adds to the near sourcing advantages of the country.

The research confirms that there is no unique global mode of supplier integration and suggests that different approaches are viable as long as the objectives of operational efficiency, good customer service and flexibility are satisfied.