R esearch concerning a supplier's voluntary adoption of environmental practices has focused on bu... more R esearch concerning a supplier's voluntary adoption of environmental practices has focused on buyer influence and supplier leadership values. These explanations are pertinent to early adopters, but other theoretical perspectives are needed to understand why later adopters, who tend to be more conservative, may or may not be likely to adopt environmental practices. Two theoretical lenses may be used to better understand later adoption processes. First, transaction cost economics examines implementation costs that have not been considered in previous research. A transaction cost economics perspective suggests that suppliers are more likely to adopt environmental practices if their information seeking, bargaining, and enforcement costs are minimized. Second, institutional theory can be applied to drivers within the supply base. The institutional theory analysis reveals that supplier adoption of environmental practices is more likely if coercive, normative, and mimetic institutional forces are in play.
R esearch concerning a supplier's voluntary adoption of environmental practices has focused on bu... more R esearch concerning a supplier's voluntary adoption of environmental practices has focused on buyer influence and supplier leadership values. These explanations are pertinent to early adopters, but other theoretical perspectives are needed to understand why later adopters, who tend to be more conservative, may or may not be likely to adopt environmental practices. Two theoretical lenses may be used to better understand later adoption processes. First, transaction cost economics examines implementation costs that have not been considered in previous research. A transaction cost economics perspective suggests that suppliers are more likely to adopt environmental practices if their information seeking, bargaining, and enforcement costs are minimized. Second, institutional theory can be applied to drivers within the supply base. The institutional theory analysis reveals that supplier adoption of environmental practices is more likely if coercive, normative, and mimetic institutional forces are in play.
ABSTRACT This research examines the relationship between strategy and structure in the highly com... more ABSTRACT This research examines the relationship between strategy and structure in the highly complex services offshore outsourcing environment. The analysis uses data from the in‐depth case studies of six organizations that purchase services (primarily call center services) to assess how the strategy of offshore outsourcing of services affects organizational structure and to develop a better understanding of the offshore outsourcing of services phenomenon. While organizations often have local buying offices and very formal structures for buying materials globally, the same is not true for purchased services. The issue of proper organizational structure for effectively managing offshore outsourced services has not been assessed. This research also aims to add to the growing body of literature related to Service‐Dominant Logic, which recognizes that services cannot be effectively studied through the lens of manufacturing. This research applies case study findings to assess how the elements of structure, namely centralization, formalization and complexity, are affected by offshore outsourcing of services. All of the organizations studied here indicate that their processes evolved and that pursuing an offshore services purchasing strategy lead to structural adaptations in terms of more centralized, team‐based structures, more formalized processes and more complex structures. However, most of the cases tried to retain some level of flexibility to allow for continued adaptation and improvement.
ABSTRACT Organizations monitor factor‐markets for strategic inputs that directly contribute to th... more ABSTRACT Organizations monitor factor‐markets for strategic inputs that directly contribute to the firms' unique advantage. Thus, managers may be unaware of essential supporting inputs that bundle with strategic inputs to sustain the organization's success. Increasingly, supply chain resources are part of that strategic bundle of resources essential for achieving the firm's competitive advantage. This research employs a conceptual theory‐building approach to examine competition among diverse industries in factor‐markets using the example of supply chain services and the relatively new lens of factor‐market rivalry theory. Data relative to air cargo capacity in China, port capacity in South Vietnam and the U.S. port and rail system provide the context for theoretical and practical insights into the implications of factor‐market rivalry on firm performance.
Offshore outsourcing of business processes is a rapidly increasing global phenomenon that require... more Offshore outsourcing of business processes is a rapidly increasing global phenomenon that requires a greater reliance on the effective development of strategic alliances and inter-firm relationships. The stakeholders involved in these service purchases influence the success or failure of the buyer-supplier relationship. This article examines the key stakeholders involved in the offshore outsourcing of services, determines what expectations these stakeholders hold, and assesses how a buying firm and the offshore supplying firm work together to meet these expectations. The case research method is used to address this phenomenon by studying six U.S.-based, Fortune 500 firms involved in offshore outsourcing of services. These buying organizations initially experienced more complexity than anticipated in engaging with offshore suppliers in outsourcing relationships. To achieve success with these relationships, the buying organizations needed to embrace cultural differences, including the...
This research focuses specifically on customer contact services that have been outsourced to exte... more This research focuses specifically on customer contact services that have been outsourced to external suppliers. The performance of the contact services supplier directly affects end customer satisfaction which underlines the need for appropriate management of customer contacts and consideration of the end customer's perspective in designing appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs). This research draws on various streams of literature including services purchasing, performance management and service quality to derive propositions on how to manage customer contact services suppliers. These propositions are subsequently investigated in an in-depth case study. The results of the case study show that managing customer contact services suppliers on effectiveness rather than efficiency benefits the overall performance of the supplier. This research shows that quality improvements in both process and service delivery ultimately lead to decreased costs. These improvements will furthermore enhance customer satisfaction and improve buying company performance. The current trend in selecting and managing suppliers for outsourced business processes is on efficiency improvements and cost savings. However, this research shows that this type of focus can actually decrease customer satisfaction and increase costs.
The purpose of this research is to explore current literature and practice specifically in enviro... more The purpose of this research is to explore current literature and practice specifically in environmental purchasing and supplier management (EPSM) in order to understand current activities and also to suggest avenues for future research. First, an assessment of the current literature in environmental purchasing was completed which showed that most of the research in environmental purchasing is not grounded in theory, and is just beginning to appear in premiere business journals, as defined by the Financial Times journal list. This was followed by an examination of company practices in environmental purchasing by assessing a targeted cross-industry subsection of 68 corporate sustainability reports. This analysis revealed that the organizations studied are still in the relatively early stages of environmental purchasing and supplier management, and practices vary by industry predominantly because of external pressure towards environmental sustainability. The authors conclude that given the relatively early stage of development of environmental purchasing practice and research, there is significant opportunity in this area to develop theory and to influence practitioner behavior.
Over the last few decades there has been an increase in the offshoring of manufacturing and servi... more Over the last few decades there has been an increase in the offshoring of manufacturing and services to low labor cost countries such as China and India. These geographic locational decisions were largely made based on quantitative cost measures and often ignored other important criteria in the decision-making process (Tate, Ellram, Bals and Hartmann, 2009). However, global organizations now face the growing trend of having to re-evaluate their supply chain designs largely because of rapidly rising wages in lower cost countries as well as increasing supply chain risk (Tate, Ellram, Schoenherr and Petersen, 2014) and complexity (Christopher and Holweg, 2011). There has also been a strong push --particularly in the U.S.--to reshore products and services, largely driven by a political platform to "bring jobs back home" (Tate, 2014). Decision-makers weighing the relative benefits and the risks of offshoring, nearshoring or reshoring are finding that the most important aspect i...
Synopsis The call to think and act differently in Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) is b... more Synopsis The call to think and act differently in Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) is becoming increasingly critical. Pagell and Shevchenko (2014: 44f.) spelled out a clear need for research into the issues of " how to create truly sustainable supply chains " and " what new practices and processes are needed to create truly sustainable supply chains " . This edited collection aims to show innovative cases, approaches and concepts in how to successfully implement all three dimensions of triple bottom line sustainability (e.g. Gimenez et al., 2012; Griggs et al., 2013) into supply chains. Rationale for the book This edited collection will represent interesting and novel research on triple bottom line sustainability as it relates to global and multinational supply chains. Articles that take a true triple bottom line (TBL) perspective are welcomed. Research has mostly focused on the environmental and economic dimension of the triple bottom line, but the soc...
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 2007
Purpose – The primary purposes of this paper are to add support to the existing three-dimensional... more Purpose – The primary purposes of this paper are to add support to the existing three-dimensional concurrent engineering (3DCE) theoretical framework and to identify issues that currently hinder the adoption of 3DCE. Design/methodology/approach – While 3DCE has been suggested as a way to improve new product development success and supply chain performance, the research on 3DCE is in its infancy,
Based on a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 supply management executives representing... more Based on a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 supply management executives representing eight companies in a variety of industries, this research focuses on the topic of services outsourcing and offshoring. Findings from these interviews indicate that a number of firms that have been offshoring for some time believe that they have outsourced too much responsibility for certain services, thereby increasing their operating risks. They have developed new solutions to attempt to address these problems, as will be discussed in the presentation.
ABSTRACT Environmentally responsible manufacturing is concerned with minimizing the environmental... more ABSTRACT Environmentally responsible manufacturing is concerned with minimizing the environmental impact of products from development to end-of-life disposal or remanufacture. Environmental pressures from customers, regulation, legislation and competition have made organizations more aware of the impact that products have on the natural environment. This study focuses on environmental concerns during the early stages of product design. We examine these concerns with a specific focus on the involvement of supply management personnel, inter-organizational supplier relationships and a determination of how environmental issues affect supplier selection and supply base management. The literature on environmental supplier and purchasing involvement in product development and environmental supplier selection criteria and codes of conduct is reviewed. Following this, secondary data from the websites of environmentally proactive organizations will be gathered to examine what type of tracking is used for suppliers. Finally, discussions with proactive organizations will be presented during the conference that explore the role of supply management personnel in capturing, measuring, quantifying and reporting on the environmental costs and benefits associated with its suppliers. This research provides insights into how the involvement of supply management can improve the environmental performance outcomes of an organization.
ABSTRACT Most companies are under pressure to improve the environmental sustainability of their s... more ABSTRACT Most companies are under pressure to improve the environmental sustainability of their supply chains. However, there is considerable variance in companies' ability to successfully deploy environmental management projects. One important factor, according to articles in the academic and business press, is the ability of champions of sustainable supply chain management (SCM) projects within organizations to gain the commitment of colleagues (e.g., other managers from a variety of functions) to help these projects succeed. Therefore, this paper examines variables that affect a project champion's ability to gain this commitment from colleagues. In particular, building on existing research, this research employs a video-based experimental design to examine the effect of the influence approach that the project champion employs, the values of the person the champion is trying to influence, and the organizational climate. The results suggest that organizational climate and certain individual values directly affect commitment. There are also interactions between values and influence tactics. The research adds to the field's growing knowledge on the antecedents of sustainable SCM within companies while providing valuable guidance for environmental champions and for top managers.
... suggestions for use of supply chain management theory, and practices for improvement ... that... more ... suggestions for use of supply chain management theory, and practices for improvement ... that links process description and definition with met-rics, best practice, and ... the supply chain (Figure 5). Customer relationship management and supplier relationship management are links ...
Firms are increasingly under pressure from stakeholders to incorporate the triple-bottom line of ... more Firms are increasingly under pressure from stakeholders to incorporate the triple-bottom line of social, environmental and economic responsibility considerations into operations and supply chain management strategies. This research uses content analysis software that performed centering resonance analysis to examine corporate communication to stakeholders through corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. The intent is to determine how supply chain strategies factor in to the triple-bottom line of 100 socially and environmentally responsible global companies. This research compares and contrasts the influential words in the CSR reports of firms from a range of industries, sizes and geographical regions. The content analysis revealed ten themes that provide a snapshot of how top global companies integrate and improve the triple-bottom line in internal operations and external supply chains. Findings indicated that while institutional pressure is the major driving force behind strategy development for all of the industries studied, companies emphasize different facets of social, environmental and economic responsibility upstream and downstream in supply chains based on industry, size and geographic location. The analysis revealed unique insights regarding corporate communications that other methodologies would not find.
This research uses data from a survey to explore the factors that affect organizations' manufactu... more This research uses data from a survey to explore the factors that affect organizations' manufacturing location decisions. Manufacturing location, more specifically the possibility of firms nearshoring or reshoring, has received a great deal of recent attention, especially in the United States. This paper applies the location aspect of internalization theory to provide an understanding of what factors affect organizations' perceptions of the attractiveness of various regions as locations for owned manufacturing facilities. An exploratory factor analysis is used to develop factors that drive manufacturing location decisions. Multiple regression analysis is used to test the relationship between the drivers of manufacturing location decisions and movement of manufacturing into or out of a region, and overall perceived risk of a region. Findings indicate that various drivers have differential effects across regions. For example, while North America is viewed favorably for its trade policies over the next 3 years, the trade policies are also viewed as an increasing source of risk, possibly reflecting bipartisan conflicts. Three theoretical propositions are developed to advance the understanding of the current state of manufacturing location decisions from an internalization perspective. It appears that organizations are beginning to look at their manufacturing location decisions through a broader lens, giving more weight to supply chain issues as well as strategic factors.
This research utilizes the framework of transaction cost economics (TCE) to develop an understand... more This research utilizes the framework of transaction cost economics (TCE) to develop an understanding of how firms manage the costs and risks of offshore outsourcing of professional services. This research examines the perspectives of eight organizations through interviews with 10 high-ranking supply management executives. The paper first explores the rationale for offshore outsourcing among the organizations studied. Using the tenants of TCE, this paper postulates that fixed costs of establishing the relationship dominate the variable costs of day-to-day transactions, and that organizations will not offshore outsource areas where there is high perceived degree of unmanageable risk. The paper expands on themes provided by TCE and offers some lessons learned, and guidelines for managing and controlling offshore outsourced services relationships. #
R esearch concerning a supplier's voluntary adoption of environmental practices has focused on bu... more R esearch concerning a supplier's voluntary adoption of environmental practices has focused on buyer influence and supplier leadership values. These explanations are pertinent to early adopters, but other theoretical perspectives are needed to understand why later adopters, who tend to be more conservative, may or may not be likely to adopt environmental practices. Two theoretical lenses may be used to better understand later adoption processes. First, transaction cost economics examines implementation costs that have not been considered in previous research. A transaction cost economics perspective suggests that suppliers are more likely to adopt environmental practices if their information seeking, bargaining, and enforcement costs are minimized. Second, institutional theory can be applied to drivers within the supply base. The institutional theory analysis reveals that supplier adoption of environmental practices is more likely if coercive, normative, and mimetic institutional forces are in play.
R esearch concerning a supplier's voluntary adoption of environmental practices has focused on bu... more R esearch concerning a supplier's voluntary adoption of environmental practices has focused on buyer influence and supplier leadership values. These explanations are pertinent to early adopters, but other theoretical perspectives are needed to understand why later adopters, who tend to be more conservative, may or may not be likely to adopt environmental practices. Two theoretical lenses may be used to better understand later adoption processes. First, transaction cost economics examines implementation costs that have not been considered in previous research. A transaction cost economics perspective suggests that suppliers are more likely to adopt environmental practices if their information seeking, bargaining, and enforcement costs are minimized. Second, institutional theory can be applied to drivers within the supply base. The institutional theory analysis reveals that supplier adoption of environmental practices is more likely if coercive, normative, and mimetic institutional forces are in play.
ABSTRACT This research examines the relationship between strategy and structure in the highly com... more ABSTRACT This research examines the relationship between strategy and structure in the highly complex services offshore outsourcing environment. The analysis uses data from the in‐depth case studies of six organizations that purchase services (primarily call center services) to assess how the strategy of offshore outsourcing of services affects organizational structure and to develop a better understanding of the offshore outsourcing of services phenomenon. While organizations often have local buying offices and very formal structures for buying materials globally, the same is not true for purchased services. The issue of proper organizational structure for effectively managing offshore outsourced services has not been assessed. This research also aims to add to the growing body of literature related to Service‐Dominant Logic, which recognizes that services cannot be effectively studied through the lens of manufacturing. This research applies case study findings to assess how the elements of structure, namely centralization, formalization and complexity, are affected by offshore outsourcing of services. All of the organizations studied here indicate that their processes evolved and that pursuing an offshore services purchasing strategy lead to structural adaptations in terms of more centralized, team‐based structures, more formalized processes and more complex structures. However, most of the cases tried to retain some level of flexibility to allow for continued adaptation and improvement.
ABSTRACT Organizations monitor factor‐markets for strategic inputs that directly contribute to th... more ABSTRACT Organizations monitor factor‐markets for strategic inputs that directly contribute to the firms' unique advantage. Thus, managers may be unaware of essential supporting inputs that bundle with strategic inputs to sustain the organization's success. Increasingly, supply chain resources are part of that strategic bundle of resources essential for achieving the firm's competitive advantage. This research employs a conceptual theory‐building approach to examine competition among diverse industries in factor‐markets using the example of supply chain services and the relatively new lens of factor‐market rivalry theory. Data relative to air cargo capacity in China, port capacity in South Vietnam and the U.S. port and rail system provide the context for theoretical and practical insights into the implications of factor‐market rivalry on firm performance.
Offshore outsourcing of business processes is a rapidly increasing global phenomenon that require... more Offshore outsourcing of business processes is a rapidly increasing global phenomenon that requires a greater reliance on the effective development of strategic alliances and inter-firm relationships. The stakeholders involved in these service purchases influence the success or failure of the buyer-supplier relationship. This article examines the key stakeholders involved in the offshore outsourcing of services, determines what expectations these stakeholders hold, and assesses how a buying firm and the offshore supplying firm work together to meet these expectations. The case research method is used to address this phenomenon by studying six U.S.-based, Fortune 500 firms involved in offshore outsourcing of services. These buying organizations initially experienced more complexity than anticipated in engaging with offshore suppliers in outsourcing relationships. To achieve success with these relationships, the buying organizations needed to embrace cultural differences, including the...
This research focuses specifically on customer contact services that have been outsourced to exte... more This research focuses specifically on customer contact services that have been outsourced to external suppliers. The performance of the contact services supplier directly affects end customer satisfaction which underlines the need for appropriate management of customer contacts and consideration of the end customer's perspective in designing appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs). This research draws on various streams of literature including services purchasing, performance management and service quality to derive propositions on how to manage customer contact services suppliers. These propositions are subsequently investigated in an in-depth case study. The results of the case study show that managing customer contact services suppliers on effectiveness rather than efficiency benefits the overall performance of the supplier. This research shows that quality improvements in both process and service delivery ultimately lead to decreased costs. These improvements will furthermore enhance customer satisfaction and improve buying company performance. The current trend in selecting and managing suppliers for outsourced business processes is on efficiency improvements and cost savings. However, this research shows that this type of focus can actually decrease customer satisfaction and increase costs.
The purpose of this research is to explore current literature and practice specifically in enviro... more The purpose of this research is to explore current literature and practice specifically in environmental purchasing and supplier management (EPSM) in order to understand current activities and also to suggest avenues for future research. First, an assessment of the current literature in environmental purchasing was completed which showed that most of the research in environmental purchasing is not grounded in theory, and is just beginning to appear in premiere business journals, as defined by the Financial Times journal list. This was followed by an examination of company practices in environmental purchasing by assessing a targeted cross-industry subsection of 68 corporate sustainability reports. This analysis revealed that the organizations studied are still in the relatively early stages of environmental purchasing and supplier management, and practices vary by industry predominantly because of external pressure towards environmental sustainability. The authors conclude that given the relatively early stage of development of environmental purchasing practice and research, there is significant opportunity in this area to develop theory and to influence practitioner behavior.
Over the last few decades there has been an increase in the offshoring of manufacturing and servi... more Over the last few decades there has been an increase in the offshoring of manufacturing and services to low labor cost countries such as China and India. These geographic locational decisions were largely made based on quantitative cost measures and often ignored other important criteria in the decision-making process (Tate, Ellram, Bals and Hartmann, 2009). However, global organizations now face the growing trend of having to re-evaluate their supply chain designs largely because of rapidly rising wages in lower cost countries as well as increasing supply chain risk (Tate, Ellram, Schoenherr and Petersen, 2014) and complexity (Christopher and Holweg, 2011). There has also been a strong push --particularly in the U.S.--to reshore products and services, largely driven by a political platform to "bring jobs back home" (Tate, 2014). Decision-makers weighing the relative benefits and the risks of offshoring, nearshoring or reshoring are finding that the most important aspect i...
Synopsis The call to think and act differently in Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) is b... more Synopsis The call to think and act differently in Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) is becoming increasingly critical. Pagell and Shevchenko (2014: 44f.) spelled out a clear need for research into the issues of " how to create truly sustainable supply chains " and " what new practices and processes are needed to create truly sustainable supply chains " . This edited collection aims to show innovative cases, approaches and concepts in how to successfully implement all three dimensions of triple bottom line sustainability (e.g. Gimenez et al., 2012; Griggs et al., 2013) into supply chains. Rationale for the book This edited collection will represent interesting and novel research on triple bottom line sustainability as it relates to global and multinational supply chains. Articles that take a true triple bottom line (TBL) perspective are welcomed. Research has mostly focused on the environmental and economic dimension of the triple bottom line, but the soc...
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 2007
Purpose – The primary purposes of this paper are to add support to the existing three-dimensional... more Purpose – The primary purposes of this paper are to add support to the existing three-dimensional concurrent engineering (3DCE) theoretical framework and to identify issues that currently hinder the adoption of 3DCE. Design/methodology/approach – While 3DCE has been suggested as a way to improve new product development success and supply chain performance, the research on 3DCE is in its infancy,
Based on a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 supply management executives representing... more Based on a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 supply management executives representing eight companies in a variety of industries, this research focuses on the topic of services outsourcing and offshoring. Findings from these interviews indicate that a number of firms that have been offshoring for some time believe that they have outsourced too much responsibility for certain services, thereby increasing their operating risks. They have developed new solutions to attempt to address these problems, as will be discussed in the presentation.
ABSTRACT Environmentally responsible manufacturing is concerned with minimizing the environmental... more ABSTRACT Environmentally responsible manufacturing is concerned with minimizing the environmental impact of products from development to end-of-life disposal or remanufacture. Environmental pressures from customers, regulation, legislation and competition have made organizations more aware of the impact that products have on the natural environment. This study focuses on environmental concerns during the early stages of product design. We examine these concerns with a specific focus on the involvement of supply management personnel, inter-organizational supplier relationships and a determination of how environmental issues affect supplier selection and supply base management. The literature on environmental supplier and purchasing involvement in product development and environmental supplier selection criteria and codes of conduct is reviewed. Following this, secondary data from the websites of environmentally proactive organizations will be gathered to examine what type of tracking is used for suppliers. Finally, discussions with proactive organizations will be presented during the conference that explore the role of supply management personnel in capturing, measuring, quantifying and reporting on the environmental costs and benefits associated with its suppliers. This research provides insights into how the involvement of supply management can improve the environmental performance outcomes of an organization.
ABSTRACT Most companies are under pressure to improve the environmental sustainability of their s... more ABSTRACT Most companies are under pressure to improve the environmental sustainability of their supply chains. However, there is considerable variance in companies' ability to successfully deploy environmental management projects. One important factor, according to articles in the academic and business press, is the ability of champions of sustainable supply chain management (SCM) projects within organizations to gain the commitment of colleagues (e.g., other managers from a variety of functions) to help these projects succeed. Therefore, this paper examines variables that affect a project champion's ability to gain this commitment from colleagues. In particular, building on existing research, this research employs a video-based experimental design to examine the effect of the influence approach that the project champion employs, the values of the person the champion is trying to influence, and the organizational climate. The results suggest that organizational climate and certain individual values directly affect commitment. There are also interactions between values and influence tactics. The research adds to the field's growing knowledge on the antecedents of sustainable SCM within companies while providing valuable guidance for environmental champions and for top managers.
... suggestions for use of supply chain management theory, and practices for improvement ... that... more ... suggestions for use of supply chain management theory, and practices for improvement ... that links process description and definition with met-rics, best practice, and ... the supply chain (Figure 5). Customer relationship management and supplier relationship management are links ...
Firms are increasingly under pressure from stakeholders to incorporate the triple-bottom line of ... more Firms are increasingly under pressure from stakeholders to incorporate the triple-bottom line of social, environmental and economic responsibility considerations into operations and supply chain management strategies. This research uses content analysis software that performed centering resonance analysis to examine corporate communication to stakeholders through corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. The intent is to determine how supply chain strategies factor in to the triple-bottom line of 100 socially and environmentally responsible global companies. This research compares and contrasts the influential words in the CSR reports of firms from a range of industries, sizes and geographical regions. The content analysis revealed ten themes that provide a snapshot of how top global companies integrate and improve the triple-bottom line in internal operations and external supply chains. Findings indicated that while institutional pressure is the major driving force behind strategy development for all of the industries studied, companies emphasize different facets of social, environmental and economic responsibility upstream and downstream in supply chains based on industry, size and geographic location. The analysis revealed unique insights regarding corporate communications that other methodologies would not find.
This research uses data from a survey to explore the factors that affect organizations' manufactu... more This research uses data from a survey to explore the factors that affect organizations' manufacturing location decisions. Manufacturing location, more specifically the possibility of firms nearshoring or reshoring, has received a great deal of recent attention, especially in the United States. This paper applies the location aspect of internalization theory to provide an understanding of what factors affect organizations' perceptions of the attractiveness of various regions as locations for owned manufacturing facilities. An exploratory factor analysis is used to develop factors that drive manufacturing location decisions. Multiple regression analysis is used to test the relationship between the drivers of manufacturing location decisions and movement of manufacturing into or out of a region, and overall perceived risk of a region. Findings indicate that various drivers have differential effects across regions. For example, while North America is viewed favorably for its trade policies over the next 3 years, the trade policies are also viewed as an increasing source of risk, possibly reflecting bipartisan conflicts. Three theoretical propositions are developed to advance the understanding of the current state of manufacturing location decisions from an internalization perspective. It appears that organizations are beginning to look at their manufacturing location decisions through a broader lens, giving more weight to supply chain issues as well as strategic factors.
This research utilizes the framework of transaction cost economics (TCE) to develop an understand... more This research utilizes the framework of transaction cost economics (TCE) to develop an understanding of how firms manage the costs and risks of offshore outsourcing of professional services. This research examines the perspectives of eight organizations through interviews with 10 high-ranking supply management executives. The paper first explores the rationale for offshore outsourcing among the organizations studied. Using the tenants of TCE, this paper postulates that fixed costs of establishing the relationship dominate the variable costs of day-to-day transactions, and that organizations will not offshore outsource areas where there is high perceived degree of unmanageable risk. The paper expands on themes provided by TCE and offers some lessons learned, and guidelines for managing and controlling offshore outsourced services relationships. #
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Papers by Wendy Tate