Repatriation or Reshoring of Manufacturing to the U.S. and UK: Dynamics and Global Production Networks or from Here to There and Back Again

The paper analyzes manufacturing reshoring operations in USA and UK. Findings show that consumer driven sectors (like electronics, apparel and computer) are more interested than others by the relocation phenomenon since to the relevance of competitive issues as delivery time, customization, quality and flexibility. Authors note that relocation decisions are always taken on the base of more than one factor; moreover, in nearly all cases qualitative and quantitative drivers coexist (e.g. rising labor cost, currency variation, longer lead times, quality, warranty, and intellectual property risk). It is worth noting that patriotism/nationalism is considered an important reshoring driver in both analyzed countries. In terms of number of decisions, authors declare 225 evidences in USA (data from the Reshoring Initiative dataset ) while in UK the public available databank (ReshoreUK) includes only 13 instances, even if there were other widespread anecdotal evidences.