Reshoring is an emergent theme in research and practice. It is important for researchers to understand the motivating force and prerequisites for these reshoring activities, and to develop a method that supports sustainable reshoring decisions. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the prerequisites for successful reshoring. The preparation for this study consists of a systematic literature review. The findings presented here, however, are revelatory and emerged during a workshop. The findings were further researched at a total of four companies, which were part of data collection in a larger project. This research identified three scenarios, in which preceding manufacturing step, creation of parallel steps, or exploration of overcapacity are central. The paper also presents a stage-gateprocess for reshoring decisions as well as a typology of reshoring alternatives. This research sheds light on prerequisites and contextual factors that enable companies to reshore. The importance of manufacturing capabilities can be seen in literature, but has not yet, to our knowledge, been given sufficient attention. The main practical implication is related to offshoring. Overly-aggressive offshoring can complicate future reshoring. As such, reshoring needs to be considered during offshoring, specifically what manufacturing capabilities that are kept at the domestic location.

The private healthcare sector was chosen because of the fundamental importance of quality in this sector, the widespread understanding that sustainable development is part of hospital quality standards, and the compelling need for the supply chain components to work together in order to add value to the business models of private healthcare services. This study uses a qualitative methodology, striving to add value to and shed light on the relationship between private hospital communication modes and their stakeholders’ needs and their stakeholders’ expectations of business models in the marketplace and society. This research lists a range of actions and services for assessing the priorities of private hospital communication modes in business models with respect to stakeholder needs and expectations. Furthermore, the study links stakeholder needs and theexpectations of business models in private hospitals, with respect to private hospital communication modes with stakeholders, and vice versa. It also provides directions for managers in the healthcare industry to determine the appropriate actions and services for addressing stakeholders’ needs and stakeholders’ expectations of business models in private hospitals considering sustainable development. This research contributes to framing the future direction of sustainable development in business models of the healthcare industry. The paper outlines the assessment of communication modes in relation to economic, social, and environmental performance in the context of sustainable development. 

Purpose – Operations and supply chain management (OSCM) is a theoretically and philosophically fragmented field. Researchers must consider how they use theory and explain empirical phenomena. This paper aims to use critical realism to introduce more coherence into this fragmented field.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on existing critical realism and abduction literature and this study uses a research process from two PhD projects to investigate critical realism’s role in OSCM research. This paper uses a narrative approach to collect data over a long timeframe, capturing data not commonly used in OSCM research.

Findings – Research that struggles to bridge the gap between theory and data benefits from critical realism, which provides a philosophy and associated methods to identify a suitable theory and guide researchers when they encounter obstacles. While clear steps often outline established methods, researchers are sometimes unable to identify when their research process has reached an obstacle. This paper argues that such obstacles can be treated as “crossroads” offering new research opportunities when correctly evaluated and addressed.

Research limitations/implications – Importantly, researchers should be able to reflect upon their own research processes, enabling a better understanding of these processes and the discovery of new research directions. Researchers can use critical realism, abduction and systematic combining to bridge the divide between theory and data in OSCM.

Originality/value – This paper contributes to the field’s discussion regarding the roles of critical realism and abduction, synthesizing multiple academic sources, highlighting critical realism’s importance and providing a novel means of addressing difficulties in navigating an eclectic research area. This paper offers a philosophical alternate to the field, which is often instead considered from a positivistic standpoint. The paper is valuable to researchers in the OSCM field, who can use the research to improve their selection of data and theories, as well as their understanding of their own research processes.

The manufacturing reshoring phenomenon has received more attention in the academic and business literature in recent years. Due to the newness of the phenomenon, there is a lack of knowledge about how these decisions were made. This research provides a theoretical framework by reviewing literature on possible criteria that are considered in a manufacturing reshoring decision. The criteria are categorized into six categories including competitive priority, resource, strategy, context, preference and global condition. A multiple case study methodology is used to identify the criteria and compare them with the theoretical framework. The findings indicate that total cost is the most common criteria considered and each case company has followed its own cost analysis techniques. Other criteria considered by all case companies were inventory cost, transportation cost, switching cost, delivery lead times, proximity to customer and availability of manufacturing technology. The research concludes that manufacturing reshoring is a holistic decision with criteria occurring at all categories in the theoretical framework. This contributes to the knowledge of reshoring decision-making and suggests that future research should investigate decision support tools for such decisions.

There is increased interest in relocation to and from high-cost environments, but there remains a lack of knowledge with regard to operations capabilities in this specific context. The purpose of this study is thus to investigate critical operations capabilities in a high-cost environment. The research process is based on the investigation of an existing framework of operations capabilities through a multiple case study including five Swedish manufacturing companies. The findings reveal that all the dimensions and capabilities included in the framework were considered critical, and additional operations capabilities could be identified: service quality, supplier dependability, supplier flexibility, supply chain innovation, supply chain sustainability. The investigation underlines the dynamic nature of operations capabilities, which need to be updated constantly according to the environment in which they are developed. This study contributes on a practical level to managers by creating an overview of operations capabilities in a high-cost environment. Through the investigation of critical operations capabilities, it is possible for managers to find new areas of competitiveness, as well as to understand their current areas of excellence. The study makes several contributions, such as the identification of operations capabilities, their investigation and validation in a specific environment.

Purpose: To survive in a competitive landscape, companies are required to identify, develop and continuously improve upon the operations capabilities that have the greatest impact on the overall competitiveness. This paper aims to evaluate critical operations capabilities for competitive manufacturing in a high-cost environment.

Design/methodology/approach: Critical operations capabilities for competitive manufacturing were extracted in a literature review and then evaluated from the perspective of a high-cost environment in a focus group study. The focus group included a quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (discussion) evaluation of the extracted critical operations capabilities.

Findings: The empirical findings revealed that all the capabilities identified in the literature review are considered critical in a high-cost environment, albeit with varying emphasis. Companies located in a high-cost environment tend to emphasize a broad set of capabilities related to quality, cost, time, flexibility and innovation rather than only cost-related capabilities.

Research limitations/implications: The research is based on a focus group that was limited to 14 representatives from five Swedish manufacturing companies. This can reveal some limitations with regard to the generalizability of the conclusions drawn. Hence, this research should be considered as an initial step in gaining a more in-depth and complete understanding of the research topic under investigation.

Practical implications: The research outcome enables managers to design their operations strategy more systematically and effectively, to be consistent with their targeted capabilities. The operations capabilities are important for both the company’s competitiveness and its future direction.

Originality/value: The paper presents an updated understanding of how companies achieved a competitive advantage in a specific manufacturing environment such as a high-cost context. It additionally provides an overview of what capabilities are developed for implementing successful operations strategies.

Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to analyze the processes of interconnectedness in cross-functional relationships involved in customer value enabling. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 20 in-depth interviews were conducted in three Brazilian companies from different industries. The critical incident technique was used for data collection and analysis. Content analysis was used to characterize the critical incidents within functional area networks.

Findings:

Six main critical incidents were identified within the studied relationships: process, urgency, lack of trust, capacity and demand imbalance, motivation and challenge. The results show situations in which the collaborative behavior of the actors generates customer value facilitation.

Research limitations/implications:

The firms studied are small and medium, located in an emerging economy and are resource-constrained. Further research could be performed in organizations in other countries with different sizes and resources. Future studies could also include customers within the analyzed functional networks to evaluate value-in-use behavior.

Practical implications:

Process, as a critical incident, may be composed of several elements that could affect the processes of value creation. Moreover, the adjustment between production capacity and demand should focus on avoiding propagation of functional problems through the processes. This focus may facilitate spontaneous community behavior and customer knowledge renewal.

Originality/value:

This paper generates new qualitative bases to characterize the interconnectedness within functional networks within the perspective of relationship marketing. The study of the internal functions and processes revealed several particularities that are not evidenced in the extant literature, which is concentrated in relationships among companies. The quality of the relationship among the members of a functional network may affect the effectiveness of the promises of customer value, more specifically in value enabling. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose – This study aims to explore the enablers and barriers to design-driven innovation, defined as the innovation of product meanings, in the product-development process. Previous research provides some insights into what enables and hinders design-driven innovation; however a detailed understanding of these factors is missing. Design/methodology/approach – A long-term case study was conducted at a furniture company between 2009 and 2016. Interviews were conducted with respondents within the company, as well as with partners such as retailers and designers. Findings – This paper presents an overview of the identified enablers and barriers. The results demonstrate that enablers and barriers occur in all phases of the product-development process. Second, the connections between enablers and barriers are presented. These are found both within and across different phases, and extend beyond the company’s influence. Research limitations/implications – This study demonstrates how the innovation of product meanings is influenced throughout all phases of the product-development process. Therefore, there is a need to go beyond the mere identification of enablers and barriers. More is gained from generating a thorough understanding of the causes and connections of these factors, including the changes over time. Practical implications – This study demonstrates the need for companies to be able to map what enables and hinders design-driven innovation in their product-development process, where a distinction needs to be made between internal and external factors, to enhance value creation. Originality/value – This study presents a rare long-term case study on design-driven innovation. This study provides new knowledge on the enablers and barriers a company faces while adapting its productdevelopment process to accommodate design-driven innovation.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the similarities and differences relating to sustainability initiatives between health-care organizations. The aim is to provide a framework of factors and their determinants to enable a profiling of organizational sustainability initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach: Based on an inductive approach, judgmental sampling was applied to select relevant health-care organizations. Informants were identified according to their knowledge of their organizations’ sustainability initiatives.

Findings: Several factors and their determinants for characterizing differences and similarities were found. The results also reveal that organizational sustainability initiatives are either value-driven or business-driven.

Research limitations/implications: The reported framework of factors and their determinants serves the purpose of profiling organizational sustainability initiatives. Opportunities for further research are provided.

Practical implications: This paper provides managerial guidance for characterizing the differences and similarities with respect to organizational sustainability initiatives in relation to other organizations.

Originality/value: This study establishes a framework for characterizing organizational sustainability initiatives. It also contributes to reveal whether organizational sustainability initiatives are value – or business-driven and considers intrinsic-oriented differences and extrinsic-oriented similarities. 

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent that a selection of economic, social and environmental factors is taken into corporate consideration (importance and priority) the longitudinal aspects of sustainable business practices.

Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on an inductive approach taking into account the longitudinal aspects and an in-depth case study of a Scandinavian manufacturer recognized for its initiatives and achievements of sustainable business practices.

Findings: The key informants indicated that economic factors are always important when it comes to sustainable business practices, social factors are to some extent important, and the environmental factors are generally important.

Research limitations/implications: The planning, implementation and follow-up of sustainable business practices and related efforts require a consideration of economic, social and environmental factors.

Practical implications: The framework of a triple bottom line (TBL) dominant logic for business sustainability applied may guide the corporate assessment to plan, implement and follow-up the importance and priority of the longitudinal aspects of sustainable business practices.

Originality/value: A TBL dominant logic for sustainable business practices adequately frames corporate efforts regarding importance and priority making a relevant contribution addressing the longitudinal aspects to complement existing theory and previous studies.