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After decades of huge production offshoring, companies are increasingly re-evaluating their production footprint, often implementing so-called reshoring strategies. Among them scarce attention has been devoted to the near-shoring option, i.e., relocation to the home region. At the same time, the impact of environmental and social sustainability on such strategies is an emerging issue within the reshoring scholars’ debate. This paper aims to shed new light on this debate focusing on the bike industry. To reach the research aim, a single case study was investigated, regarding an Austrian bike manufacturer that decided to near-shore the assembling phase to Poland in 2021. Collected evidence was analyzed through an interpretative framework based on the extant literature, allowing us to understand the impact of environmental and social issues on the reshoring decision making and implementation process, and its outcomes. The analyzed case study shows that environmental and social issues may play different roles when near-shoring decisions are taken and implemented. However, it emerges that the magnitude of such impacts may differ among the specific levels of analysis investigated (namely drivers, barriers, enabling factors and outcomes) and the sustainability pillar investigated (environmental vs. social one). The debate on sustainability impacts on a firm’s relocation strategies is still in its infancy, moreover the near-shoring alternative was not considered earlier in the academic debate. Therefore, this paper is the first attempt to shed new light on this issue and also proposes some future research avenues.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has been recognized as a trigger for redefining supply chains at the global level, and has created an intense debate within the academic community and among policy-makers and practitioners. Among other industries, health care has been dramatically hit by the scarcity of “medical products,” specifically for personal protective equipment (PPE-like), due to supply chain disruptions coupled with dramatically increased demand. We aimed to analyze how the scarcity of PPE-like during the COVID-19 pandemic has modified the behavior of decision-makers in the PPE-like supply chain at the hospital level, and to explore what changes could be implemented to cope with future PPE-like shortages. Methods We used an explorative approach based on semi-structured interviews with key informants in the Spanish health care industry. More specifically, we held interviews to industry experts at three hospitals in three Spanish regions to map the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic onto the buying decision-making process. Results Different strategies were developed by decision-makers at hospitals before, during, and after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. Our paper offers two main findings: a) decision-makers changed their purchasing behavior from a cost main driver to guaranteeing the availability of supplies; b) they supported the idea of giving more “strategic autonomy” to Spain or Europe through back and nearshoring decisions. Conclusions This paper could be of interest to health care management at the national, regional, and hospital levels, as well as for policy-makers, since it could help to establish and configure policies to support the sourcing of medical products (specifically PPE-like) to anticipate potential supply disruptions. Our paper contributes to the limited existing literature on how purchasing strategies at the decision-maker level and supply vary in the health care industry when a public health crisis appears, and what potential solutions might be for policy-makers and practitioners involved in the health care industry.

This paper investigates whether entrepreneurial and marketing orientations (respectively EOs and Mos) impact – individually or collectively – international new ventures’ (INVs’) post-entry performance growth. Furthermore, we investigate whether such relations are moderated by the foreign social networks, both formal and informal, of international new ventures. Using a survey, we test our hypotheses on a sample of Italian high-tech INVs located in a cluster near Rome. A quantitative analysis is used to test the hypotheses. We found that EOs and MOs positively impact the post-entry international performance growth of INVs. Moreover, while informal foreign social network ties significantly moderate the impact of EOs and MOs, formal foreign social network ties do not have a significant moderating effect. Many theoretical and practical contributions are discussed in the paper.

After decades of off-shoring strategies, companies are often critically re-evaluating their earlier location decisions; in doing so, sometimes they implement the so-called relocation of second degree. Among them, back-shoring (i.e., relocation to the home country) and near-shoring (relocation to the home region) are two of the alternatives attracting growing interest from scholars. This paper aims to shed new light on the variables influencing the choice made between these two alternatives. As requested in the extant literature, a contingency approach is adopted, focusing attention on the footwear industry. Given the exploratory nature of the paper, evidence from 41 back-shoring and near-shoring strategies are analysed, comparing data from Spanish and Italian companies. Collected data are adapted to test hypotheses concerning three sets of variables: firms’ characteristics, motivations for the second degree relocation and its barriers. Collected data show that firm’s size directly influences the chosen alternative since larger companies prefer to near-shore instead of back-shore. When considering motivations, while the “made in” effect does not influence the firm’s choice, availability of skilled contractors and/or government aids induces companies to relocate to the home country instead of the home region. Finally, companies fearing encountering barriers, in terms of skilled contractors’ availability and/or (re-)development of internal manufacturing competences, will prefer the back-shoring rather than the near-shoring option. The study is focused on two countries (Spain and Italy) where the manufacturing sector (and the footwear industry within it) is still relevant to the local economy. Findings cannot be generalized to countries/industries where the local industry has been totally dismantled, without a previous in-depth analysis. The findings obtained offer managers useful insights on the elements that should be carefully evaluated when considering back- and near-shore alternatives. Additionally, valuable insights are provided for policy makers that plan to design industrial policies supporting back-reshoring policy initiatives. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper in the extant literature addressing variables influencing the choice between back- and near-shoring alternatives.

After decades of offshoring, in recent years, companies have sometimes revised their location decisions implementing one of the three alternatives of the so-called ?relocations of the second degree?. More specifically, they have relocated manufacturing activities either in their home country (back-shoring), in their home region (near-shoring), or in a further away location (further offshoring). While offshoring and relocations of the second degree have been heavily analysed in US and Western European countries, there is no evidence regarding companies in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper focuses on Polish companies belonging to the fashion and electromechanical meta-sectors. More specifically, it investigates the relocation of both manufacturing and supply activities. Based on 602 questionnaires collected during 2020-2021, it emerges that Polish companies rarely offshored their production activities in both the investigated industries. This is mainly explained by concerns in terms of reduced responsiveness, higher coordination and quality appraisal costs, and patriotism. Finally, some differences emerged in terms of geographical location between the two meta-sectors, inducing speculation that fashion companies were mainly boosted by efficiency-seeking aims, while electro-mechanical companies by market-seeking aims. Due to scant evidence of offshoring strategies, relocations of the second degree are very few. However, differences emerge between the two investigated meta-sectors. More specifically, when considering ?relocations of the second degree?, fashion companies preferred to back-shore, while electromechanical companies decided to relocate to a second host country.

Entrasti da professore ordinario alla Luiss alla fine degli anni ’80; una delle prime chiamate di punta dell’ambizioso programma di rafforzamento dell’università voluto dall’allora presidente Guido Carli. Ti venne dato l’obiettivo di sviluppare il filone degli studi sulla gestione e l’organizzazione d’impresa. Hai fondato quella Scuola, riempiendola di allievi, molti dei quali sono oggi in ruoli importanti nella tua stessa università, o si fanno valere in Italia o all’estero. Ti occupasti poi di sviluppare l’offerta formativa e il potenziamento della Facoltà di Economia. Gestitisti tu, dal lato accademico, l’operazione delle “borse Amici della Luiss”, istituite per far crescere all’interno giovani di belle speranze che sarebbero poi potuti divenire accademici di “scuola” Luiss. … to be continued

Purpose of the paper: In recent years, companies are often rethinking their production localization decisions; among different alternatives, they are also considering the relocation of manufacturing activities at the home country (i.e. back-shoring). The purpose of this work is to verify the relationships between the decision to repatriate production (independently of the adopted governance mode) and two of the pillars of sustainability, namely the environmental and the social one. Methodology: Authors implemented an explorative approach based on an extensive literature review of 105 articles and book chapters indexed on Elsevier Scopus and published up to August 2018. The selected documents have been analyzed conceptualizing environmental and social sustainability under three different perspectives, namely motivation/driver, result/outcome and barrier/enabling factor for back-shoring strategies. Results: Results show a growing interest of back-shoring scholars on sustainability issues, with respect to both, the social and the environmental pillar. While these elements have been mainly conceptualized as back-shoring motivations, more recently sustainability has been also considered as a barrier/enabling factor for back-shoring strategies. Research limitations: Due to the explorative nature of the study, generalizability of the results is limited. Practical implications: The paper provides insights to policy makers who may implement policies to support back-shoring which also enhance environmental and social sustainability of manufacturing. The paper also offers some useful insights for managers, and suggest them to take into count of environmental and social sustainability when implementing backshoring decisions. Lastly, the paper contributes to the academic debate showing some avenues for future research.

The manufacturing sector in the UK is currently undergoing a significant supply chain transformation and managers are re-evaluating supply chain location decisions to minimise the disruptions caused by Brexit. This entails manufacturing offshoring and back-shoring once again being considered as strategic decisions and companies ought to make informed choices with respect to where they source or manufacture their products. This paper aims to contribute to an improved understanding of the back-shoring phenomenon in the UK. Eight case studies of back-shoring have been analysed and compared using a theoretically informed framework. The results show that back-shoring can stem from both misjudgements of previous offshoring decisions as well as changes in the demand pattern in the home country. Unlike offshoring decisions being mainly cost-oriented, strategic shift aimed at increasing the value perceived by the customer has a pivotal role in the back-shoring decision. Furthermore, skill shortage is the main barrier for the implementation of back-shoring strategies in the UK and requires companies’ attention prior to its repatriation.

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to trigger a reconfiguration of global value chains according to four alternative trajectories: reshoring, regionalization, replication and diversification. This paper focuses on the first two scenarios. On the basis of a review of the extant reshoring literature and policies implemented in several major developed and emerging economies, we present a comprehensive framework to classify and analyse the evolution of such policies before and after the pandemic. The paper develops some policy recommendations suggesting that reshoring policies need to be supported by and combined with industrial policies enforcing the competitiveness and sustainability of production systems.

While the World is still dealing with the health and safety issues raised by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is already quite apparent – and acknowledged – that this event will have a substantial impact over the national and global economies, as well as on the structure, the organization and the management of operations and supply chains, as highlighted in the June 2020 editorial (Samson 2020). In particular, a certain consensus is found among authoritative experts, analysts, and Institutions (e.g., Javorcik 2020; The Economist Intelligence Unit 2020; UNCTAD 2020; World Economic Forum 2020), that the pandemic will undermine the “Global value chain” model – a production network paradigm which has deeply characterized the World economy over the past 30 years, and one of the most visible “trademarks” of Globalization. This likely reshaping of the supply chains will be driven by both managerial (i.e., firm-level) and political (i.e., Sub-National, National, or Supranational-level) factors. At the firm level, many companies experienced dramatic exposure to supply chain disruptions during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns (Strange 2020) due to their reliance on offshore supplies. While the increased hazards of global operations had been highlighted in supply chain risk management literature (Manuj and Mentzer 2008), the 2020 pandemic has represented an unprecedented demonstration of how disruptive their effects could be. It is now difficult to believe that managers could simply restart to focus solely on efficiency and growth, without paying the necessary regard to risk-related practices (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2020), especially when considering that the pandemic happened as a shock in an already turbulent context of trade battles, raising protectionist policies (Javorcik 2020), and increasing pressures for more sustainable business models. Further, the pandemic unveiled in many countries their lack of self-sufficiency for needed products – like those required to hinder the spread of the contagion, such as masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE), or to ensure medical assistance to the people affected by the virus, such as ventilators) – as well as their dependency on China for several others (Gurvich and Hussain 2020). The latter include strategic supplies like pharmaceutical items but also components of key industrial supply chains (e.g., automotive, chemicals) whose stoppage can dramatically hurt the GDP of an advanced economy. As a consequence, the call for more self-reliance will – and in some cases has already started to (e.g., in the case of Japanese Government that started to incentivize relocation initiatives) – raise in the political debate, urging measures to better protect, reinforce, or even reinstate the macro-regional or national production of these goods. In particular, this editorial focuses on the “reshoring” phenomenon, defined as the decision to relocate a manufacturing activity either back to the home country (back-reshoring) or to a nearby country that belongs to the same macro-region (near-shoring).

After decades of manufacturing offshoring strategies, generally addressed to low cost countries, in the last few years companies have been increasingly revising their location strategies. In so doing, they often implement either back-shoring (relocation to the home country) or near-shoring (relocation to the home region) alternatives. While the former strategy has gained increasing attention among scholars in recent years, studies on near-shoring are still scarce. Moreover, the academic literature rarely compares the two phenomena in order to understand why companies prefer to implement one instead of the other. This paper aims to shed new light on similarities and differences among back- and near-shoring strategies. In order to reach such an objective, we assume a contingency approach by focusing on a specific industry, the footwear sector, which has been significantly characterized by offshoring strategies. In order to reach the research aim, the comparison between back- and near-shoring strategies will be conducted focusing on three main issues: a) characteristics of the companies implementing the relocation strategy (firm’s size); b) motivations inducing companies to relocate; c) barriers to the implementation of the relocation decision. Given the explorative nature of the paper, the features of 41 back- and near-shoring decisions implemented by 25 Italian and Spanish companies operating in the footwear industry will be analysed. Preliminary findings show smaller companies are more likely to back-shore instead of near-shore, probably because of the lower competences and resources they own. At the same time, availability of skilled contractors and/or availability of government aid in the home country induce them to back-shore instead of near-shore. Finally, the lack of skilled suppliers mainly characterizes the back-shoring alternative.

Purpose The aim of this paper is to analyze and classify research that has been conducted on manufacturing reshoring, i.e. the decision to bring back to the home country production activities earlier offshored, independently of the governance mode (insourcing vs outsourcing). Consequently, the paper also aims at providing avenues for future research and to highlight the distinct value of studying manufacturing reshoring either per se or in combination with other constructs of the international business tradition. Design/methodology/approach A set of 57 carefully selected articles on manufacturing reshoring published in international journals or books indexed on Scopus in the past 10 years was systematically analyzed based on the “5Ws and 1H” (who-what-where-when-why and how) set of questions. Findings The authors’ work shows a certain convergence among authors regarding what reshoring is and what its key features and motivations are. In contrast, other related aspects, such as the decision-making and implementation processes, are comparatively less understood. Research limitations/implications As manufacturing reshoring is a “recent” topic, for some of its aspects, only exploratory research is available to date, limiting the authors’ possibility to either characterize it in a more exhaustive way or highlight well-established patterns. Practical implications The paper demonstrates that studying reshoring will indeed contribute to expanding our understanding of internationalization processes and strategies in general and of production internationalization specifically. While past studies have argued that the learning derived from international experience would permit firms to overcome their unfamiliarity with new business environments, reshoring might show that this outcome is not necessarily certain. Rather, firms might not be able to overcome obstacles because of internationalization or they might realize that attempting to do so is not desirable, e.g. because of excessive risk or changes in the firm’s strategic priorities. Social implications From a societal point of view, the present research underlines that reshoring can be part of that re-industrialization policy that many Western countries include in their economic agenda – yet, its impact on employment should not be overestimated, as often relocation is only in regard to some product lines. At the same time, there might be an intimate relationship between reshoring and the various forms of technological innovations applied to manufacturing – which has become popularly labeled as “Industry 4.0”. Originality/value Literature reviews proposed until now usually paid almost exclusive attention to motivations driving this phenomenon. This paper offers a broader and more comprehensive examination of the extant knowledge of manufacturing reshoring and identifies the main unresolved issues and knowledge gaps, which future research should investigate.

Conversations on social media can be dialogic or dialectic.In dialogic conversations, social media users interact among themselves.In dialectic conversations, social media users interact with the company.Modern social media are characterized by dialogic conversations.Young users consider dialogic conversations more informative than dialectic ones. The structure of conversations on social networks may affect the users perceptions regarding the informative value of the conversations. Consequently, to draw the maximum benefit from social networks, companies should understand which form these online conversations take. The paper argues that the conversations on social networks can have two forms: (1) dialogic: users interacting among themselves; (2) dialectic: users interacting with the company. Through three empirical studies, the research suggests that users express some preference for dialogic conversations, and young users have a higher tendency than senior users to consider dialogic conversations more informative than the dialectic alternative. These results suggest that social media managers should shape the layout and design of social media platforms to support dialogic conversations, encouraging horizontal interactions among users.

Over the last two decades, companies have increasingly been re-evaluating their off-shoring strategies and implementing decisions on relocations of second degree (RSD). In some cases, the RSD decision has been implemented through back-shoring. The topic has attracted the attention of several scholars, some of whom have specifically investigated the role of Industry 4.0 technologies in the back-shoring decision-making process. This paper aims to shed new light on the role that Industry 4.0 technologies play as a driver or an enabling factor for companies that are evaluating RSD alternatives. A two-step explorative approach has been used for this research. In the first step, a theoretical approach has been followed by developing a structured literature review based on 115 Scopus-indexed journal articles. The second step of the methodology is based on the empirical evidence of European countries using the UnivAQ manufacturing reshoring dataset. The collected data provides evidence of the growing interest of scholars in this issue; however, attention has mainly been focused on two single technologies, production automation and additive manufacturing. The empirical data offers interesting findings in terms of industry and geographic characterisation.

Taking a longitudinal approach, we analyze how the evolution of different dimensions of social capital between an SME (Small and Medium enterprise) and its key foreign customers directly influences the firm’s foreign performance growth. Moreover, we utilize a contingency approach by introducing two dyad-specific characteristics into the analysis: psychic and geographic interorganizational distances. Our findings contribute to the international business literature on social capital and suggest that while an investment in social capital with distant foreign customers always reinforces SMEs’ foreign performance development, relational and cognitive social capital have the same positive effects only for low levels of interorganizational psychic distance.

Motivations underscoring offshoring and backshoring are typically investigated as separate entities in the academic literature. This separation undermines a deeper comprehension of the two phenomena, and implicitly denies the conceptualization of backshoring as a possible step of the firm internationalization process. Our paper seeks to fill this gap by (1) understanding the relations (if any) among offshoring and backshoring motivations at firm level; (2) exploring whether backshoring is a “failure” of the offshoring initiative, or rather the evolution of the firm's competitive and location strategies. A content-based literature review provides the base for the identification of the key motives for offshoring and backshoring, which are then organised using a theory-grounded framework. Next, we conduct a multiple case study analysis based on four companies, searching for common patterns in offshoring and subsequent backshoring initiatives. Cases allow understanding how the motivations (Why) connect with the governance modes (How), and the location choice (Where). Building on the case findings, the paper presents some propositions for future empirical research.

This paper throws light on the determinants of the duration of manufacturing offshore experiences by US and European firms prior to reshoring. By applying survival analysis to a dataset of 249 offshoring experiences terminated with a relocation to the home country/region, we estimate the effects of different groups of survival determinants. Results highlight that contextual factors such as the industry, the home country, the host country, and the size of the firm significantly affect the duration of offshoring experiences. The likelihood of termination is in fact higher for the electronics and automotive industries, for small firms, for firms headquartered in Europe, and for offshoring to Asia. The analysis of the motivations for reshoring shows that quality issues experienced offshore emerge as the key factor giving rise to shorter offshore stays. Based on these empirical findings, a set of testable propositions is developed. In particular, we conjecture that the likelihood of termination of offshore manufacturing and the return to the home country may be accelerated by technology-based industries, small firm sizes, shrinking cost differentials and the psychic distance between home and host country, the organizational archetypes, and quality related motivations.

Over the past few years, the use of terms such as “on-shoring”, “re-shoring”, “home-shoring”, and “back-shoring” has multiplied dramatically, especially in economic journalism and in consulting firms’ white papers. In turn, policy-makers have seen back-shoring strategies as ways to bring jobs back home during the global crisis. The topic has attracted academic attention (mainly in the Supply chain management field of study), but reliable and quantitative evidence on the extent of the back-shoring phenomenon is scant and often of anecdotal nature. Moreover, the characterisation of this evidence, as well as its role within the firms’ internationalisation process, remains unclear. In this paper we adopted an explorative approach building on both theoretical and empirical literature from the fields of International Business and International Operations Management. The first aim of the paper is to offer a characterisation of back-reshoring as a possible step of the firm’s internationalisation strategy and to identify the differences (if any) with other phenomena, such as “de-internationalisation”, “international divestment” and “return relocation”, already analysed by international business and international operations management scholars. The second aim of the paper is to review the empirical literature on back-reshoring and to complement it with the findings of an extensive data collection. Firms’ motivations for back-reshoring emerging from this evidence are interpreted in the light of existing theories of internationalisation, and used to propose a set of research questions for scholars to tackle. Results confirm what has been heard anecdotally: logistic issues, rising costs in offshore locations, automation, quality issues inside the global supply chain, and the realization of the advantages of proximity to markets are all at the root of location strategies that tend to be regional rather than global. Finally, open issues are identified and opportunities for future research are suggested. Our findings confirm that, though it cannot be considered a generalised trend, back-reshoring is a very topical issue, not the least because of its social and political implications. To date, the topic remains largely unexplored, and longitudinal research is required to address our research questions and other issues that can help with understanding and predicting successful location decisions.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for the analysis of reshoring. The framework is then applied to analyze motivations for reshoring, as they emerge from extant literature and from new evidence collected. Design/methodology/approach – The authors start by formulating a literature-grounded definition of reshoring and reviewing some key theoretical approaches for international manufacturing location. In light of these theories, the authors then propose an interpretative framework for the analysis of reshoring motivations. Finally, the authors provide new evidence on this phenomenon, by presenting the findings of an extensive data collection of reshoring cases built on secondary data. Findings – The authors show that a vast array of single drivers of reshoring can be extracted from extant literature; however, the interpretative framework eventually highlights four main typologies of reshoring motivations, thus allowing for a more sound comprehension of why the phenomenon happens. The empirical investigation proves also useful in comparing the relative importance of these motivations, as it reveals that value-driven and country-specific motivations prevail over efficiency-driven and firm-specific ones, respectively. Research limitations/implications – The study is based on the analyses of secondary data extracted from newspapers and magazine sources. Some motivations (and especially those that configure a “correction of a previous erroneous decision”) could have been underestimated. In addition, certain industries (e.g. clothing and footwear), certain countries (USA and China), and certain firms (large companies and MNCs) could have more visibility to the media. Another possible limitation is due to the fact that the classification work inherently implied some discretion and individual judgment. The authors however spent considerable efforts in cross-validating the assessments through extensive discussion within the research team. Originality/value – This is the first paper that summarizes the motivations of the rising reshoring phenomenon and interprets them based on an original theory-derived classification framework.

Obiettivo del paper . Il paper si prefigge di inquadrare il fenomeno del back-reshoring manifatturiero - ovvero la rilocalizzazione nel paese di origine delle attivita produttive precedentemente delocalizzate all’estero -nell’ambito dei processi di internazionalizzazione dell’impresa. Metodologia . L’approccio metodologico utilizzato e di tipo esplorativo, data la mancanza di una letteratura consolidata specifica. In particolare si e fatto ricorso a dati secondari raccolti in maniera originale attraverso una pluralita di fonti. Risultati . E stata identificata una definizione operativa di back-reshoring inserendo tale fenomeno in un framework teorico rappresentativo del processo evolutivo di internazionalizzazione dell’impresa. Sulla base delle evidenze empiriche, sono state proposte delle direttrici di sviluppo per future attivita di ricerca. Implicazioni manageriali . Sono state evidenziate le conseguenze che il fenomeno puo avere sulla competitivita e le performance economica delle imprese che adottano strategie di reshoring. Originalita e limiti della ricerca . Il principale elemento di originalita del lavoro e rappresentato dall’utilizzo di una metodologia di ricerca esplorativa che ha coniugato l’analisi della letteratura di International business e quella di Supply chain management con l’analisi di evidenze empiriche raccolte in maniera originaria. Le scelte metodologiche effettuate rappresentano anche il principale limite del contributo, le cui conclusioni non sono generalizzabili ma costituiscono la base per ulteriori approfondimenti del dibattito scientifico, per i quali si sono identificate delle specifiche direttrici.

After decades of offshoring, involving production activities and business functions, some service and manufacturing companies have started to bring back their activities to their home country. We refer to this phenomenon by the term reshoring. We illustrate empirical evidence relying on two different datasets (“Uni-CLUB MoRe reshoring”; “Offshoring Research Network project”) which guarantee the largest geographical coverage of the phenomenon. Our data exhibits 501 reshoring cases of manufacturing activities (especially in fashion and electronics industries) from emerging to advanced (e.g. U.S. and Germany) countries mainly due to cost reasons; conversely, the back-reshoring of business functions is still a limited phenomenon.

PurposeThis purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for optimally planning long‐haul road transport activities through proper aggregation of customer orders in separate full‐truckload or less‐than‐truckload shipments in order to minimize total transportation costs.Design/methodology/approachThe model is applied to a specific Italian multi‐plant firm operating in the plastic film for packaging sector. The method, given the order quantities to be shipped and the location of customers, aggregates shipments in subgroups of compatible orders resorting to a heuristic procedure and successively consolidates them in optimized full truck load and less than truck load shipments resorting to a Genetic Algorithm in order to minimize total shipping costs respecting delivery due dates and proper geographical and truck capacity constraints.FindingsThe paper demonstrates that evolutionary computation techniques may be effective in tactical planning of transportation activities. The model shows that substantial savings on overall transportation cost may be achieved adopting the proposed methodology in a real life scenario.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of this optimisation methodology is that an heuristic procedure is utilized instead of an enumerative approach in order to at first aggregate shipments in compatible sets before the optimisation algorithm carries out the assignments of customer orders to separate truckloads. Even if this implies that the solution could be sub‐optimal, it has demonstrated a very satisfactory performance and enables the problem to become manageable in real life settings.Practical implicationsThe proposed methodology enables to rapidly choose if a customer order should be shipped via a FTL or a LTL transport and performs the aggregation of different orders in separate shipments in order to minimize total transportation costs. As a consequence, the task of logistics managers is greatly simplified and consistently better performances respect manual planning can be obtained.Originality/valueThe described methodology is original in both the kind of approach adopted to solve the problem of optimising orders shipping in long‐haul direct shipping distribution logistics, and in the solution technique adopted which integrates heuristic algorithm and an original formulation of a GA optimisation problem. Moreover, the methodology solves both the truckload assignment problem and the choice of LTL vs FTL shipment thus representing an useful tool for logistics managers.

This study proposes a model for the analysis and performance evaluation of e‐supply chains (e‐SCs), that are supply chains (SCs) in which actors are connected by Internet technologies. It is assumed that e‐SC performances are influenced by the network ol structures, by the criteria adopted to manage relationships among involved actors, and by the critical activities that the leading company performs. At first, the variables influencing such factors are identified and the interdependencies among them are analysed to establish existing correlations. This, in turn, enables one to group the values of the influencing factors in four coherent sets which are consistent with different business environments, thus assuring the effectiveness and efficiency to the e‐SC. The obtained reference model is then tested by applying it to literature‐based case studies. The output of this model may be used to design totally new e‐SCs or to redesign the existing ones, in both manufacturing and services industries.

Interest in back-reshoring strategies – intended as companies׳ decisions to reverse previous off-shoring by bringing manufacturing back home – has gained momentum recently. However, little is known so far about the magnitude of this phenomenon, about its geographical boundaries, and about the underlying motivations. In this paper a characterization of back-shoring as part of the dynamics of firms׳ internationalization strategies is offered. Next, building on emerging empirical evidence, open questions are identified and an agenda for research is proposed.

This paper focuses on “reshoring” strategies, conceptualized as the relocation of production earlier off-shored, independently of its governance mode (out-sourcing vs. in-sourcing). More specifically, we investigate two different forms of this phenomenon: the repatriation of manufacturing activities in the firm’s home market (back-reshoring) or in a country located at a shorter distance from the headquarter (near-reshoring). We suggest that such phenomena may represent a significant “threat” (back-reshoring) or a “opportunity” (near-reshoring) for the economies of East Central Europe and Baltic Countries. Based on a wide-ranging literature review and findings derived from an extensive data collection, suggestions for policy makers and managers are provided.

This paper aims at analysing the main features of R&D activities carried out by the Italian biotech companies. The proposed contribution can be ascribed to the massive stream of research related to the reconfiguration of the value chain activities at the international level. Such a topic has become more and more actual because of both the markets globalisation and diffusion of networked architectures within internationalised companies (see, among others, Bartlett 1986; Bartlett and Goshal 1987, 1990; Bartlett, Doz and Hedlund 1990; Forsgren 1993; Forsgren and Holm 1993; Forsgren, Holm and Johanson 1991, 1992; Forsgren and Johanson 1992; Forsgren and Pedersen 1998; Hedlund 1979, 1980, 1986, 1994; Hedlund and Ridderstrale 1994; Hedlund and Rolander 1990; Lipparini and Fratocchi 1999). Within such a stream of research, we decided to focus the attention on the biotech industry, due to its specific features, that deeply influence both the strategic behaviour of firms and the economic environment of the countries where they operate.Keeping in mind the different types of biotech firms operating at global level, we have decided to focus our attention to a less heterogeneous population. In so doing, we narrowed the analysis to the red biotech segment (that is health care biotech companies which develop drugs and diagnostics), because of its absolute predominance both in Italy (73% of enterprises, 94% of total revenue and 86% of investments1) and at worldwide level (51% of EU firms and 60% of USA ones2). First of all we collected data for a sample of companies operating in the Italian red biotech industry. Particularly, we focused on R&D activities: we tried to quantify its extent, to understand where they are located (domestically or abroad) and the role played by alliances/cooperation with -in and -out the industry. More specifically, in order to reach the goals above described, attention was paid to the aptitude of the Italian country-system to attract investments from abroad. In doing so, we studied separately the Italian independent firms and MNCs. Analysing the peculiarities of how Italian independent firms and MNCs manage R&D activities, we tried to find out the existence of a different approach to R&D investments.The paper is structured in four main sections. In the first one, the main relevant features of biotech firms are discussed and the literature background presented. The second paragraph deals with sample and methodology description. In the third section, the main results regarding the analysis of R&D activities carried out by the red Italian biotech companies are presented. The conclusions complete the paper.

PurposeThe purpose of the present paper is to provide a comprehensive framework for analyzing relationships among economic actors interconnected through internet and constituting e‐supply networks (e‐SNs).Design/methodology/approachAt first the main factors characterizing e‐SN pattern are identified (organizational structures, managerial criteria and critical activities), then two separate procedures are adopted for developing an integrated reference framework. The first based on the analysis of correlations among variables influencing the factors under investigation; the second based on the analysis of different types of physical and immaterial flows among actors involved in the e‐SN. On the basis of such evidence an integrated global framework is proposed, which is then used to classify and describe some relevant literature‐based case studies.FindingsOn the basis of two newly introduced variables, namely the internal integration degree and the decision‐making concentration degree, the framework identifies four sets of organizational structures, managerial criteria and critical activities, each one coherent with specific environmental contexts.Research limitations/implicationsThe framework is restricted to describing and classifying different typologies of e‐SN.Practical implicationsThe framework may be useful for assessing if the typology of organizational structure, managerial criteria and critical activities adopted for the management of a specific e‐SN, is coherent with e‐SN business environment. It may also provide useful guidelines for managers and practitioners involved in e‐SN design.Originality/valueThe paper provides an original integrated framework to classify e‐SNs.

The paper deals with technological and managerial innovation transfer to small and medium sized enterprises. A comprehensive framework is presented, identifying a networked architecture in which different actors (universities, other R&D centers, consulting companies, the European Union, national government, local public administration) interact. In so doing, the need of a specific promoting role is pointed out. Consequently, introduction of an innovation center (IC) responsible for the whole transfer process is proposed. Within this organizational unit, the role of innovation promoter (IP), that is the interface with the specific SME, is analyzed and discussed. Finally, a general scheme of IC and IP actions and competences is presented.

Questo lavoro utilizza la teoria del capitale sociale per comprendere le peculiarità del processo di acquisizione della conoscenza sui mercati esteri da parte delle start-ups. L'ipotesi sostenuta e' che lo sviluppo del capitale sociale nelle relazioni di business estere può favorire l'acquisizione di conoscenza che, a sua volta, accelera la crescita estera di tali imprese. Il campione analizzato include 112 start-ups italiane ad alta tecnologia, mentre l'unità di osservazione sono le relazioni diadiche da essi intraprese con il proprio cliente estero più importante. I risultati ottenuti confermano l'ipotesi che l'acquisizione di conoscenza risente del tipo di relazioni sociali instaurate con i clienti esteri più importanti, sia in modo positivo che negativo, a seconda della specifica dimensione del capitale sociale coinvolta.

This paper aims at shedding new light on the variables that indicate the level of autonomy of subsidiaries of internationalizing companies. Specifically, we examine subsidiaries located in the transition economies of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). We identified a sample of 72 subsidiaries of micro, small and medium-sized Italian companies, and we assessed the impact of three variables on the subsidiary's autonomy: the size; the strategic aim in the local market (market seeking or cost reduction); and the degree of economic development of the local country. Our results suggest that subsidiary's autonomy reflects local country characteristics, but not the economic development. Our findings also show that subsidiaries looking for penetrating the local market are generally more autonomous than the ones pursuing cost cutting strategies. Dieser Artikel untersucht zentrale Einflussfaktoren der Selbstandigkeit von Tochterunternehmen anhand eines Samples von 72 italienischen Tochtergesellschaften (Klein- und Mittelunternehmen) in Mittel- und Osteuropa. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dafi die Grofle des Tochterunternehmens, das Griindungsziel (Gewinnung neuer Mdrkte oder Kostenabbau) und die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung des Aus lands marktes die Autonomie der Tochtergesellschaft beeinflussen. Wachsende Auslandsmarkte und das Ziel der Absatzmarkterschliefiung fuhren generell zu mehr Selbstandigkeit des Tochterunternehmens.