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PRODID:-//Columba Systems Ltd//NONSGML CPNG/SpringViewer/ICal Output/3.3-
 M3//EN
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20161103T101359Z
DTSTART:20161110T130000Z
DTEND:20161110T140000Z
SUMMARY:The reshoring of business services: reaction to failure or cohere
 nt strategy? 
UID:{http://www.columbasystems.com/customers/uom/gpp/eventid/}kh3-iv2732o
 4-jekutn
DESCRIPTION:For several decades\, firms in developed countries have strat
 egically offshored manufacturing and production activities to emerging e
 conomies mostly to exploit cost advantages\, \nwhile locating value-addi
 ng\, knowledge-intensive activities in advanced countries to benefit fro
 m knowledge pool (Contractor et al.\, 2010\; Doh et al.\, 2009). \nAfter
  decades of offshoring of both production and services (the latter still
  a growing phenomenon)\, some companies have started to relocate their o
 ffshore activities either back to home countries \nor to other offshore 
 locations. In this paper\, we adopt the term “reshoring” to indicate the
  voluntary (i.e. not forced by host country governments) partial or tota
 l relocation of business initiatives previously offshored\,\n whether to
  another location or back home. Namely\, we refer to the relocation of b
 usiness processes and activities of companies operating in manufacturing
  and service industries. The relevance of the phenomenon\n has been ackn
 owledged by the economic press (The Economist\, 2013a)\, consultancy com
 panies (Sirkin et al\, 2013)\, and transnational institutions (UNCTAD\, 
 2013). The U.S. Administration is challenging traditional free-trade cor
 nerstones\n to bring back home some production activities (Tate\, 2014)\
 , and\, recently\, the European Union is considering (or designing) poli
 cies to support the re-industrialization (EPRS\, 2014). \nAlthough the d
 ebate has mostly regarded manufacturing activities\, some companies are 
 beginning to take back home service jobs\, for instance General Electric
  and General Motors have decided to reshore IT services \n(The Economist
 \, 2013b). \nDespite the rising interest in mass media and public opinio
 n towards reshoring\, there is almost no research on the phenomenon of t
 he reshoring of business services\, and relatively limited scholarly res
 earch on the reshoring of manufacturing operations\n (e.g.\, Arlbjørn an
 d Mikkelsen\, 2014\; Ellram\, 2013\; Ellram et al. 2013\; Fratocchi et a
 l.\, 2014\; Gylling et al\, 2015\; Kinkel and Maloca\, 2009\; Martinez-M
 ora and Merino\, 2014\; Tate et al.\, 2014). \nThis may be due to the la
 ck of systematic data available on this phenomenon\, and its relatively 
 little scale. However\, this phenomenon is likely to become more pronoun
 ced. \nMarket adjustments are weakening imbalances between advanced and 
 emerging economies in terms of the main drivers underlying the offshorin
 g of business services\, i.e. \nthe quest of cost savings and the recrui
 ting of qualified personnel (Lewin et al.\, 2009\; Manning et al.\, 2008
 ). On the one hand\, over time\, labour costs are raising in emerging ec
 onomies\n and declining in advanced countries where unemployment rates i
 ndicate over supply in the labour market (Arlbjorn and Mikkelsen\, 2014\
 ; Van Den Bossche et al.\, 2014). \nThese trends suggest that reshoring 
 is much more than a managerial fad and it represents a raising opportuni
 ty\, as well as a threat\, for managers and policy makers in advanced an
 d emerging economies. \nIn order to discuss the potential implications a
 ssociated to this phenomenon\, a deeper understanding and empirical anal
 yses are required. \nThe literature explains reshoring of manufacturing 
 as a consequence of performance shortcomings (Fratocchi et al.\, 2014\; 
 Kinkel and Maloka\, 2009\; Kinkel\, 2012). \nWe argue that reshoring of 
 business services may be due not only to not reaching the objectives und
 erlying offshoring decisions\, i.e.\, a somewhat unsatisfactory performa
 nce\,\n but also to the desire to continue pursuing the original offshor
 ing strategy when external conditions change\, even if the performance o
 f offshoring operations is satisfactory. \nOffshoring decisions have bee
 n discussed within the framework based on disintegration\, localization 
 and externalization advantages (Kedia and Mukherjee\; 2009). \nOur empir
 ical analysis relies upon original data from the Offshoring Research Net
 work (e.g. Lewin and Peeters\, 2006)\, and confirm that these factors ca
 n explain also reshoring decisions\, in addition to performance shortcom
 ings. \n
STATUS:TENTATIVE
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
LOCATION:B2\, Alliance MBS East\, Booth Street East\, \, Manchester\, M13
  9SS
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