What do we know about manufacturing reshoring?

The paper offers a systematic literature review of 57 journal articles and book chapters indexed on Elsevier Scopus, published from 2007 to 2017, and regarding the  manufacturing reshoring phenomenon. In this paper the term is used to indicate “the decision to bring back to the home country production activities earlier offshored, independently of the governance mode (insourcing vs. outsourcing)”. The material has been analyzed through the "5 W and 1 H" approach (What, Who, Why, Where, When & How). The authors identified that a unique definition of reshoring has not identified yet. Particularly, there is a lack of studies referred to the typology of activities reshored, and to the relationship between offshoring and reshoring strategy. Also, the decision to reshore and the implementation of the reshoring project (i.e. the “how” of reshoring) is still not well understood. On the contrary, the drivers of reshoring are extensively analyzed by the literature. However,  authors recommend further studies to address the role of digitalization and automation as enabling factors. Finally, the authors highlight the critiocal role of policy makers, and suggest further investigations to define supporting initiatives.