Disruptive Events as a return ticket home : A qualitative study on how disruptive events influence reshoring decision making

Background: Reshoring is a growing phenomenon that refers to a company’s decision to move production back from a previously offshored location. There are many drivers and barriers to such decisions that display an increased complexity for managers. It gets even more challenging in a world with high levels of uncertainty shown in the past decade. Purpose: This study aims to investigate the drivers and barriers of reshoring and how managers perceive the risk of disruptive events as a driver of reshoring. Method: This study uses a qualitative method and deductive approach, where empirical evidence was collected through semi-structured interviews with eight managers at clothing companies. Conclusion: The findings of this study confirm several already established drivers and barriers to reshoring in the particular context of the clothing industry. Furthermore, the study shows that managers perceive an increased willingness to reshore as a response to disruptive events. This was to a large extent due to long lead times and higher coordination costs. Managers can use the findings as support in making decisions of where to locate their production.