Sourcing from low-cost countries : identifying sourcing issues and prioritizing impacts on logistics performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the issues pertinent to sourcing internationally from low‐cost countries (LCCs) and to understand which issues are associated most strongly with a firm's logistics performance.Design/methodology/approach – Comparative examination of supply sources in developed countries and LCCs is conducted using a paired‐sample setting. Data acquired by a mail survey of US‐based manufacturing firms are analyzed using a canonical correlation analysis (CCA). CCA helps to reveal the structure of relationships within and between a set of sourcing issue variables and a set of the logistics performance variables investigated.Findings – Results indicate that the issues that should be priorities for improvement are: supplier production capability; business culture and practices; and communication infrastructure.Research limitations/implications – The survey data and analysis focused on US manufacturing firms importing from LCCs. However, there is increasing activity of US re...

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