Special issue of operations management research

Over the last decades, offshoring of production activities to emerging countries has raised significant managerial challenges for companies and severe economic and social concerns in Western countries due to the loss of jobs and the depletion of manufacturing skills. Though clues exists that the reverse trend (a phenomenon known as " Reshoring " , or " Backshoring ") has recently started raising, and it is attracting the interest of the Academic community. Reshoring is a company's location decision. It refers to the relocation to the home country of formerly offshored (in-sourced or out-sourced) production or service activities. Research on global value chain management has acknowledged the importance of effective supply chain configuration and coordination capabilities, proficient supplier management skills in international relationships, etc. as main drivers of firm's successful internationalization. Preliminary evidence on the triggers of reshoring suggests that these supply chain factors are likewise relevant to the location decision. A supply chain management perspective could thus usefully complement the extant international business theories for investigating the phenomenon. It has been noted that supply chain-related factors are becoming more important in manufacturing location decisions; besides, the novel framework of Supply chain innovation appears as a promising perspective for reshoring research, since by explaining how firms can change the way they create and deliver value, it can help to clarify the proactive role of companies in reducing, or eliminating, their dependence on the resource advantage of offshore locations. However, reshoring research is still in its infancy. There is a dearth of empirical studies, and of structured theoretical frameworks that can explain the phenomenon. Undertaking a supply chain perspective can prove useful in studying the motivations and mechanisms of reshoring. At the same time, it is important to understand how the relocation of production activities is influencing the supply chain redesign. Guidelines All submissions must adhere to the format, style and other established guidelines for regular OMR submissions (see " Important Information for Authors " pdf at www.editorialmanager.com/omra and more details at http://springer.com/12063). This includes a 25 pages limit and a special emphasis on application to practice. Manuscripts must be submitted by 1 September 2015. Authors should note that in submitting a manuscript to be reviewed for this special issue, they may be invited to serve as potential reviewers for other manuscripts. Topics that are of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to:  Empirical analyses of the …