Is Reshoring the new Offshoring? – An analysis of production location decisions of manufacturing firms from a German perspective

Abstract

Recent news report more and more often about manufacturing companies which bring their formerly offshored products and processes back to Germany. There are indicators that after years of extensive offshoring, companies start to reconsider their manufacturing location decisions and realize the advantages of onshore production. This phenomenon has often been referred to as a manufacturing reshoring. The purpose of this thesis is first of all to clarify this rather blurry concept of reshoring and define its main drivers and barriers by means of a systematic literature review. This was made in order to develop a common understanding of the concept and to identify existing research gaps. Until now there are for example only a few studies in the extant literature covering the decision-making process of reshoring. A development of a reshoring decision framework would be highly valuable since reshoring is a strategic long-term decision and comes with many factors that must be taken into consideration. This paper provides a model for a reshoring decision framework comprising the relevant factors to consider when deciding to reshore. It allows firms to have a better overview of the factors influencing their reshoring decision and thus might serve as a kind of guideline to enable companies to make better-informed decisions.