IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/opmare/v14y2021i3d10.1007_s12063-021-00202-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adoption of digital technologies and backshoring decisions: is there a link?

Author

Listed:
  • Bart Kamp

    (Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and Deusto Business School)

  • Juan José Gibaja

    (Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness and Deusto Business School)

Abstract

The present paper assesses whether the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies can be related to backshoring. It does so by -firstly- investigating the implementation of such technologies by industrial firms with foreign production plants, the experiences and intentions of these firms regarding the location of production activities, and -secondly- by analyzing backshoring cases among them. It finds that backshoring is a rare phenomenon, and it is questionable whether there is a correlation, left alone causality, between the adoption of digital technologies in home-based manufacturing sites and backshoring hitherto. And while the future may hold more backshoring movements in store, they may not be primarily due to the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies at home-based plants. Instead, other (foreign) location-specific factors seem to have greater weight in the decision-making processes around backshoring operations. I.e., deteriorating sales forecasts in offshore places where firms have production activities, increases in institutional uncertainty in such places, rationalization of global production apparatuses, and/or a lack of possibilities to deploy foreign manufacturing activities and output for third markets. Also against the backdrop of events like the outbreak of Covid19 and the uncertainty-raising effect it has on international business, the trade-off between producing off-shore or bringing manufacturing activities back home is not likely to depend on technology adoption levels at home and abroad either.

Suggested Citation

  • Bart Kamp & Juan José Gibaja, 2021. "Adoption of digital technologies and backshoring decisions: is there a link?," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 380-402, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:opmare:v:14:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s12063-021-00202-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s12063-021-00202-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12063-021-00202-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12063-021-00202-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Dunning, 2001. "The Eclectic (OLI) Paradigm of International Production: Past, Present and Future," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 173-190.
    2. Roberto Grandinetti & Raffaella Tabacco, 2015. "A return to spatial proximity: combining global suppliers with local subcontractors," International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(2), pages 139-161.
    3. Erin Anderson & Hubert Gatignon, 1986. "Modes of Foreign Entry: A Transaction Cost Analysis and Propositions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 17(3), pages 1-26, September.
    4. Henning Kagermann, 2015. "Change Through Digitization—Value Creation in the Age of Industry 4.0," Springer Books, in: Horst Albach & Heribert Meffert & Andreas Pinkwart & Ralf Reichwald (ed.), Management of Permanent Change, edition 127, chapter 2, pages 23-45, Springer.
    5. Keith D. Brouthers & George Nakos, 2004. "SME Entry Mode Choice and Performance: A Transaction Cost Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 28(3), pages 229-247, May.
    6. Claire Joubioux & Evelyne Vanpoucke, 2016. "Towards right-shoring: a framework for off-and re-shoring decision making," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 117-132, December.
    7. Rasha Rezk & Jagjit Singh Srai & Peter J Williamson, 2016. "The impact of product attributes and emerging technologies on firms’ international configuration," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 47(5), pages 610-618, June.
    8. Dachs, Bernhard & Kinkel, Steffen & Jäger, Angela, 2019. "Bringing it all back home? Backshoring of manufacturing activities and the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1-1.
    9. Mats Forsgren & Ulf Holm & Jan Johanson, 2005. "Managing the Embedded Multinational," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4000.
    10. Amy V. Benstead & Mark Stevenson & Linda C. Hendry, 2017. "Why and how do firms reshore? A contingency-based conceptual framework," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 85-103, December.
    11. Lydia Bals & Jon F. Kirchoff & Kai Foerstl, 2016. "Exploring the reshoring and insourcing decision making process: toward an agenda for future research," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 102-116, December.
    12. Pamela K. Robinson & Linda Hsieh, 2016. "Reshoring: a strategic renewal of luxury clothing supply chains," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 89-101, December.
    13. Gylling, Michael & Heikkilä, Jussi & Jussila, Kari & Saarinen, Markku, 2015. "Making decisions on offshore outsourcing and backshoring: A case study in the bicycle industry," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 92-100.
    14. Ancarani, Alessandro & Di Mauro, Carmela & Mascali, Francesco, 2019. "Backshoring strategy and the adoption of Industry 4.0: Evidence from Europe," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 360-371.
    15. Roger Strange, 2020. "The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and global value chains," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 47(3), pages 455-465, September.
    16. Paolo Barbieri & Albachiara Boffelli & Stefano Elia & Luciano Fratocchi & Matteo Kalchschmidt & Danny Samson, 2020. "What can we learn about reshoring after Covid-19?," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 131-136, December.
    17. Sébastien Miroudot, 2020. "Reshaping the policy debate on the implications of COVID-19 for global supply chains," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(4), pages 430-442, December.
    18. John H Dunning, 1998. "Location and the Multinational Enterprise: A Neglected Factor?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 29(1), pages 45-66, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bart Kamp, 2021. "Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons in supply chain management among industrial firms," EKONOMIAZ. Revista vasca de Economía, Gobierno Vasco / Eusko Jaurlaritza / Basque Government, vol. 100(02), pages 210-233.
    2. Chiara Franco & Filomena Pietrovito, 2024. "Drivers of firms’ digital activities in response to the Covid-19 pandemic," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 14(3), pages 695-726, September.
    3. Smorodinskaya, N. & Katukov, D., 2022. "Russia's opportunities for entering Industry 4.0 markets by improving its position in distributed production," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 53(1), pages 223-231.
    4. Andrea Ferrari & Giulio Mangano & Anna Corinna Cagliano & Alberto De Marco, 2023. "4.0 technologies in city logistics: an empirical investigation of contextual factors," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 345-362, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fernando Merino & Cristina Di Stefano & Luciano Fratocchi, 2021. "Back-shoring vs near-shoring: a comparative exploratory study in the footwear industry," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 17-37, June.
    2. Movin Sequeira & Anders Adlemo & Per Hilletofth, 2023. "A hybrid fuzzy-AHP-TOPSIS model for evaluation of manufacturing relocation decisions," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 164-191, March.
    3. McIvor, Ronan & Bals, Lydia, 2021. "A multi-theory framework for understanding the reshoring decision," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6).
    4. Silvia Cosimato & Roberto Vona, 2021. "Digital Innovation for the Sustainability of Reshoring Strategies: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-16, July.
    5. Diletta Pegoraro & Lisa Propris & Agnieszka Chidlow, 2022. "Regional factors enabling manufacturing reshoring strategies: A case study perspective," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 112-133, March.
    6. Paolo Barbieri & Albachiara Boffelli & Stefano Elia & Luciano Fratocchi & Matteo Kalchschmidt & Danny Samson, 2020. "What can we learn about reshoring after Covid-19?," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 131-136, December.
    7. Henkel, Malin & Boffelli, Albachiara & Olhager, Jan & Kalchschmidt, Matteo, 2022. "A case survey of offshoring–backshoring cases: The influence of contingency factors," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    8. Paolo Barbieri & Clio Dosi & Matteo Vignoli, 2023. "Implementing reshoring: insights and principles from a longitudinal case study in the e-bike industry," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 555-573, June.
    9. Albachiara Boffelli & Malin Johansson, 2020. "What do we want to know about reshoring? Towards a comprehensive framework based on a meta-synthesis," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 53-69, June.
    10. Pinheiro, Alexandra & Sochirca, Elena & Afonso, Oscar & Neves, Pedro Cunha, 2023. "Automation and off(re)shoring: A meta-regression analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    11. Stentoft, Jan & Mikkelsen, Ole Stegmann & Jensen, Jesper Kronborg & Rajkumar, Christopher, 2018. "Performance outcomes of offshoring, backshoring and staying at home manufacturing," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 199-208.
    12. Piatanesi, Benedetta & Arauzo Carod, Josep Maria, 2019. "An Analysis about reverse offshoring," Working Papers 2072/376030, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    13. Johansson, Malin & Olhager, Jan, 2018. "Comparing offshoring and backshoring: The role of manufacturing site location factors and their impact on post-relocation performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 37-46.
    14. Albachiara Boffelli & Luciano Fratocchi & Matteo Kalchschmidt & Susana Cristina Lima da Costa e Silva, 2021. "Doing the right thing or doing things right: what is better for a successful manufacturing reshoring?," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, June.
    15. Stefano Elia & Luciano Fratocchi & Paolo Barbieri & Albachiara Boffelli & Matteo Kalchschmidt, . "Post-pandemic reconfiguration from global to domestic and regional value chains: the role of industrial policies," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    16. Luíza Neves Marques Fonseca & Angela Rocha, 2023. "Setbacks, interruptions and turnarounds in the internationalization process: a bibliometric and literature review of de-internationalization," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(3), pages 1351-1384, September.
    17. Luciano Fratocchi & Julia Mayer, 2023. "The impact of environmental and social sustainability on the reshoring decision making and implementation process: insights from the bicycle industry," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 574-593, June.
    18. Młody Michał & Stępień Beata, 2020. "Principles of reshoring development in luxury goods sector," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 56(2), pages 140-158, June.
    19. Amy V. Benstead & Mark Stevenson & Linda C. Hendry, 2017. "Why and how do firms reshore? A contingency-based conceptual framework," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 85-103, December.
    20. Kinkel, Steffen & Baumgartner, Marco & Cherubini, Enrica, 2022. "Prerequisites for the adoption of AI technologies in manufacturing – Evidence from a worldwide sample of manufacturing companies," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:opmare:v:14:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s12063-021-00202-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.