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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.

The rapid increase of use of online platforms by the customers in the hospitality and tourism industry has invited the needs for using digital platforms by the concerned industry. In such a scenario, the purpose of this study is to examine how adoption of blockchain technology in hospitality and tourism industry could impact the sustainability performance of the organizations under the moderating influence of technological turbulence and senior leadership support.

With the help of existing literature, stakeholder theory and dynamic capability view (DCV), a theoretical model is proposed. It was validated using the PLS-SEM technique with 311 respondents who have different managerial positions in the hospitality and tourism industry. The proposed theoretical model is unique and effective as it has high explanatory power.

The study demonstrates the importance of adopting BCT in the hospitality and tourism sector and how it could improve the sustainability performance of organizations in that sector. This study also finds that there is a significant moderating impact of technological turbulence and senior leadership support on such organizations that adopt BCT.

This study provides valuable inputs to practitioners in the industry by showing how adopting BCT can improve their sustainability performance. The study also demonstrates that leaders and the managers should support adopting BCT in their organizations and they can help to overcome any technological challenges that might come up while adopting it.

The present study proposes a unique theoretical model which was also validated using a statistical approach. Moreover, both stakeholder theory and dynamic capability view were integrated to propose the theoretical model, which is a novel attempt so far as adoption of BCT in hospitality and tourism industry is concerned.

This paper aims to investigate the drivers of foreign direct divestment (FDD), how it relates to foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and stocks and its implications for developing countries. While divestment occurs for various reasons, it can be explained by reversing the propositions implied by FDI theories.

The authors combine FDI data and FDI theories to provide theoretical explanations for FDD and what it means for developing countries. FDI stock and flow data are used to derive inferences on trends in FDD and examine the implications of FDI theories on FDD.

Changes in the modes of global production and the rise of COVID-19 have reinforced the trend of stagnant or diminishing FDI flows observed since the global financial crisis, with implications for FDD. The authors demonstrate how the various FDI theories can be used to explain FDD, except for the currency areas hypothesis. By reviewing the costs and benefits of FDI, it is concluded that shrinking FDI flows and stocks may not be as detrimental for developing economies as it is typically portrayed.

The paper uses two original approaches to measure and explain the motives for FDD. The first is a reassessment of FDI theories in a way that makes them valid theories for FDD. The second original approach is to interpret data on FDI flows and stocks to imply the trends governing FDD, which is useful, as data on foreign divestment are not available on a country or regional basis.

Amid the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), supply chains have faltered. This has influenced operational and financial performance and lead to uncertainty in supply and distribution. Therefore, systems measuring supply chain risk and disruption management performance have gained interest. This study explores barriers to supply chain performance measurement during disruptions such as COVID-19.

Based on a survey and literature review, the authors formalise the barriers and rank them using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) fuzzy Višekriterijumsko kompromisno rangiranje (VIKOR) methodology. A total of 14 experts in 11 countries were surveyed. Performance measurement is based on a balanced scorecard.

Fifteen barriers are identified. Based on DEMATEL analysis, the cause–effect relationships among the four scorecard aspects are explored. The customer axis is revealed as the cause, while the financial, internal business and learning/development are identified as the effect of the supply chain performance measurement. Fuzzy VIKOR calculations show that uncertainty of investment, disrupted cash flows and the bullwhip effect are the most critical barriers to measure supply chain performance during outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study identifies and ranks general barriers; additional research is required to differentiate barriers in specific industrial sectors.

The findings may help develop proactive, resilient supply chain performance strategies to overcome disruptions.

Policy-makers and decision-makers in industrial and service firms can explore these findings to inform strategies for robust supply chains that can resist disruption in risky environments.

This research addresses a knowledge gap in barriers to measure supply chain performance in post-pandemic areas. It is unclear how far firms will measure supply chain performance in terms of learning from disruption patterns, managing financial and customer demand processes in light of COVID-19. This study contributes by explaining the influences among the barriers and exploring them, offering insights from multiple stakeholders.

Background: The study focuses on the challenges encountered during the distribution of food and face-mask items during the first COVID-19 lock-down by various relief supply chain actors.

Methods: Data were collected from forty (40) relief actors through online (via Zoom and telephones) and face-to-face interviews, between January 2021 to March 2021. Data was coded based on per-determined themes after which it was further processed using Atlas ti. v7.57 to generate patterns.

Results: The study established challenges related to needs identification, procurement, warehousing, transportation, handling, beneficiary verification, and last-mile distribution. Additionally, the media and politics coupled with the emergence of new actors and governance issues were part of the challenges identified.

Conclusions: The identified challenges were internal and external to the relief supply chain; hence actors could have control over some while others were beyond their control. The findings could inform practitioners and policymakers on what challenges are likely to affect their operations, especially during a pandemic, and design appropriate coping mechanisms.

In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic has become one of the most impactful disruptions which has imposed high levels of uncertainty on supply chains around the world. Supply chain integration (SCI) is highly recommended as an underlying mechanism that can facilitate the development of resilience and robustness as two dynamic capabilities. They can in turn positively influence firm performance and success during the disruptive conditions of COVID-19 era. The study aims to examine whether SCI as an enabler of resilience and robustness can improve firm performance during COVID-19 pandemic.

A theoretical model is developed to elaborate the relationship between SCI dimensions, resilience and robustness and firm’s operational and financial performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey method is then used to empirically examine the model using a sample of 94 companies in the food industry in the province of Tehran, Iran, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study makes several contributions. It provides a novel theoretical model on the relationship between SCI, resilience and robustness and firm performance and tests this model in a less-studied yet critical context (i.e. Iranian food industry) and during a disruptive era (i.e. COVID-19 pandemic).

The results support the positive effect of three SCI dimensions of internal, product and process integration on operational and financial performance during corona virus pandemic. Furthermore, internal and process integration have positive effects on resilience. Internal, product and process integration have positive effects on robustness. In addition, resilience mediates the effects of internal and product integration on both operational and financial performance, whereas robustness mediates the effect of internal and product integration on financial performance.

This study was conducted in the Province of Tehran. To test and generalize the results, it is recommended to conduct this study in other places and countries.

These results highlight the importance of SCI dimensions as vital enablers of resilience and robustness and their consequent impact on firm’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is an increasing interest in the supply chain’s digitalization, yet the topic is still in the preliminary stages of academic research. The academic literature has no consensus and is still limited to research assessing the supply chain’s digitalization of organizations. This study aims to explore the supply chain digitalization drivers to understand the emerging phenomena. More specifically, the authors devised from the literature the most common factors in assessing the readiness in scaling supply chain digitalization.

This study followed a five-phased systematic literature review (SLR) methodology in this research: designing, analyzing, conducting, writing and assessing the quality of the review. The SLR is beneficial for justifying future research regardless of the complex process that requires dealing with high-level databases, information filtering and relevancies of the content. Through analysis of 347 titles and abstracts and 40 full papers, the authors showed and discussed the supply chain digitalization: transformation factors.

The results generated three main themes: technology, people and processes. The study also generated ten subthemes/primary drivers for assessing the readiness for supply chain digitalization in organizations: IT infrastructure, cybersecurity systems, digitalization reskilling and upskilling, digitalization culture, top management support, digitalization and innovation strategy, integrated supply chain, digital innovation management, big data management and data analytics and government regulations. The importance of each factor was discussed, and future research agenda was presented.

While the key drivers of the supply chain digitalization were identified, there is still a need to study the statistical correlation to confirm the interrelationships among factors. This study is also limited by the articles available in the databases and content extraction.

This study supports decision-makers in understanding the critical drivers in digitalizing the supply chain. Once these factors are studied and comprehended, managers and decision-makers could better anticipate and allocate the proper resources to embark on the digitalization journey and make informed decisions.

The digitalization of the supply chain is more critical nowadays due to the global disruptions caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the surge of organizations moving toward the digital economy. There is a gap between the digital transformation pilot studies and implementation. The themes and factors unearthed in this study will serve as a foundation and guidelines for further theoretical research and practical implications.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (2017, pp. 14–15) identified that “industrialization is the seedbed for entrepreneurship, business investment, technological progress, the upgrading of skills, and the creation of decent jobs.” This placed studying different industrial sectors and their respective clusters, which are key drivers for economy, innovation, and knowledge creation (Slaper, Harmon, & Rubin, 2018), at the forefront of research. This chapter tackles the automobile industrial cluster in Egypt that possesses promising potential yet faces some challenges. It aims to provide an overview of the cluster, alongside underpinning its strengths and obstacles facing it. Moreover, the chapter displays the importance of the labor dimension in increasing the labor competitiveness of the cluster and showcases this through two cases of German automobile manufacturers that pioneered in venturing into the market through employing technical and vocational education and training. In conclusion, recommendations are provided to help in steering the cluster toward success.

Cities remain an understudied unit of analysis for understanding the motives of multinational enterprises’ (MNE) foreign direct investment (FDI), with subnational locations in International Business (IB) research to date predominantly captured via the phenomenon of agglomeration. As regional integration projects, such as the European Union and to a lesser degree NAFTA, increasingly reduce the importance of national institutional environments, this paper argues regional and subnational levels become more important for studying MNE location choice. This paper aims to evaluate the explanatory contribution of regional and subnational levels of analysis to understanding MNE location choice.

A qualitative deductive bottom-up multiple-case study research design is adopted to study the city location choices and FDI motives of six automotive and six commercial banking companies. These purposefully sampled manufacturing and service MNEs have different home countries and regional orientations. Data on their foreign investments across the extended Triad of Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific were collected for the time period of 2000–2021.

Findings suggest that different classes of city tend to attract specific types of FDI and that these patterns might vary across sectors and be influenced by the regional strategic orientations of MNEs. Industry-specific findings reveal the importance of related and support industries and partners in a city location for the automotive MNEs, while the commercial banks seek investment opportunities in cities that allow acquisition targets that have an attractive customer based and will improve their local market knowledge.

The findings provide evidence in support of MNEs in manufacturing and service industries perceiving the attractiveness of three city types in different ways across the Triad regions.

Over the next decade, humanity is going to face big environmental problems, and considering these serious issues, businesses are adopting environmentally responsible practices. To put forward specific measures to achieve a more prosperous environmental future, this study aims to develop an environment-based perspective framework by integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) technology into a sustainable automotive supply chain (SASC).

The study presents a conceptual environmental framework – based on 29 factors constituting four stakeholders' rectifications – that holistically assess the SASC operations as part of the ReSOLVE model utilizing IoT. Then, experts from the SASC, IoT and sustainability areas participated in two rigorous rounds of a Delphi study to validate the framework.

The results indicate that the conceptual environmental framework proposed would help companies enhance the connectivity between major IoT tools in SASC, which would help develop congruent strategies for inducing sustainable growth.

This study adds value to existing knowledge on SASC sustainability and digitalization in the context where the SASC is under enormous pressure, competitiveness and increased variability.