Is Reshoring Better Than Offshoring? The Effect of Offshore Supply Dependence
研究了离岸供应依赖如何影响回流与离岸的利润比较，发现离岸供应依赖会削弱回流的响应能力，导致回流利润可能低于离岸，并探讨了通用组件设计等缓解措施。
In this paper we investigate the effect of offshore supply dependence (OSD) on offshoring–reshoring profit comparisons. We find that OSD hampers a reshoring manufacturer’s responsiveness to demand information updates and may significantly affect offshoring–reshoring comparisons, such that reshoring may yield lower profits than offshoring in many cases, including when offshoring has no baseline-cost advantage. We then show that OSD also affects how salient costs such as customs duties and shipping costs influence offshoring–reshoring profit comparisons. We further identify common-component designs as a mitigating measure to make reshoring more appealing under OSD, and numerically confirm the robustness of our results. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2016.0604 .