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PurposeReshoring implies the reconfiguration of supply networks. Focusing on the specific case of a born-offshored firm that engaged in reshoring of outsourced activities, this study aims to analyse how initial key suppliers in the home country can help the reshoring firm to organize a new supply network.Design/methodology/approachThe research is qualitative and based on a single exploratory case study. The data was collected from multiple primary and secondary sources, and using different techniques, such as in-depth interviews, direct observation and network pictures.FindingsThe study provides insights on how an initial key supplier can enable its customers’ reshoring in the home country. Specifically, the authors identify 10 roles played by a key supplier. The results also identify supply network formation as an essential component of the reshoring process.Originality/valueThis paper provides unique contributions. Firstly, it presents the specific and under-explored case of a born-offshored firm engaged in outsourced reshoring; secondly, it sheds light on the roles that key suppliers may play for the reshoring process; thirdly, it explores the formation of business relationships in the context of reshoring. In essence, the paper contributes to the reshoring literature, by stressing the importance of supply network formation in the reshoring process and by identifying the multiplicity of roles that key suppliers can play when implementing reshoring, and to the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) literature, by showing how relationships and networks develop during reshoring, a phenomenon so far understudied by IMP scholars.

Significant disruptions have recently afflicted global value chains (GVCs), causing shortages of essential products like antibiotics. Antibiotic shortages are a prioritized issue for policymakers because they increase patient suffering and healthcare costs. Focusing on the case of Sweden, we use a unique dataset of generic antibiotic GVCs and show that more than three-quarters of them entail substantial shortage risk. Through extensive qualitative data, we first identify six policies currently under discussion by Swedish policymakers to address antibiotic shortages, and then discuss their potential impact on the configuration of antibiotics GVCs, as well as how these policies change when moving from the Swedish to the EU context. Our analysis shows specifically that mandatory parallel sourcing, relocations, and new reimbursement models are the three policies with the strongest expected effects. This study contributes to the GVC and international business literature by introducing three types of mechanisms (reinforcing, gathering, and multiplying) whereby policy can affect the resilience of GVCs. We also contribute novel insights about necessary changes in policies when moving from the national (Sweden) to the supranational (EU) level, as well as about how different types of GVC governance frame the relevance of policies for other small high-income countries.

Objectives

Antibacterial drug discovery activities are essential for filling clinical pipelines with promising clinical candidates. Little information is available about the challenges and shortcomings of small companies and academic institutions in performing these important discovery tasks.

Methods

We performed a content analysis of 463 reviewer comments on 91 funding applications of antibacterial drug discovery projects submitted to two major global funders between 2016 and 2020 that had not proceeded further in the selection process. This quality assessment was complemented with the inputs (via e-mail) from a panel involving six antibiotic research and development (R&D) experts with long-standing expertise and experience in antibiotic drug discovery.

Results

Common critical comments of reviewers are grouped into three main categories: scientific and technical shortcomings, unclear potential societal impact, and insufficient capability and expertise of the project team regarding the R&D process. Insufficient characterization of in vitro activity and/or testing of the hits/leads and insufficient antibacterial activity were the most common critical comments. Other areas of concern were insufficient or lack of differentiation from available drugs or projects with a long R&D history, and the research team's insufficient knowledge of a structured streamlined R&D process as reflected in severe gaps in the expertise of the R&D team. Little appreciation for the problem of the emergence of target-based resistance, especially in single-target approaches, and little awareness of toxicological issues, including approaches with historical liabilities were also commonly mentioned. The shortcomings identified through the analysis of funding applications are echoed by the results of the expert panel.

Discussion

Our analysis identified an urgent need of strengthening the support for antibacterial drug discovery teams to help more projects reach such a quality to be eligible for global funders and private investors.

Acknowledging the importance of technology-driven acquisitions for China, and of host-country intellectual property rights protection (IPRP) in the Tech Cold War era, this study – drawing on institutional-based and springboard logics – investigates the effects of host-country IPRP on China’s technology-driven acquisitions. Based on panel data of 377 country/year observations of Chinese listed firms in 29 countries between 2008 and 2020, our results illustrate an inverted U-shaped relationship between the strength of host IPRP institutions and the quantity of China’s technology-driven acquisitions. This inverted U-shaped relationship is weakened by home-host economic distance, rather than political distance. Clearly, host-country IPRP matters in Chinese firms’ location choices for technology-driven acquisitions and those host countries with IPRP that is either too weak or too strong are unattractive to Chinese acquirers. Our study responds to the debate about the inconsistent findings of IPRP’s effects on foreign investments, and enriches the research on springboard internationalization.

This study explores the relevance of top management teams’ experience to support the headquarters parenting advantage in the context of Chinese multinationals. Specifically, it studies how the political and international experience of headquarters’ top management teams moderates the relationship between headquarters involvement in knowledge transfer processes – a key aspect of value creation in the parenting advantage logic – and the extent of reverse knowledge transfer from subsidiaries. Based on the data from two complementary surveys of senior managers in 99 Chinese multinationals and managers in their 177 subsidiaries, our analysis indicates a contrasting effect of top managers’ experience as their political experience weakens, but their international experience strengthens the positive effect of headquarters involvement in reverse knowledge transfer. This study contributes to the parenting advantage logic, by introducing the relevance of different top managers’ experiences, and to our understanding of top management teams in the context of both reverse knowledge transfer and Chinese multinationals, particularly by showing the important implications of top management teams’ experience for Chinese enterprises’ international strategies.

In the last years, research on reshoring has gained momentum and experienced rapid development. Relying on bibliometric and content analyses of 135 articles from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, this review takes stock and guides future research on the topic. In particular, performing bibliometric performance analysis, conceptual thematic mapping and bibliographic coupling using the Bibliometrix R-package, this study identifies the main contributions to reshoring research, its conceptual structure and emerging themes. Combining the results of bibliometric and content analyses, we propose a conceptual reshoring framework characterized by five main themes: (i) antecedents, (ii) contingencies, (iii) decision, (iv) implementation, and (v) outcome. Following this framework, we organize and discuss past literature, propose a research agenda for each single theme and new avenues for future research on the conceptualization of reshoring as a process.

In light of emerging-market multinationals’ substantial engagement in strategic asset-seeking internationalization, this study explores the effects of home-country political ties on innovativeness and reverse innovation transfer in Chinese multinationals. Based on a survey of 99 Chinese multinationals and their 177 subsidiaries, the results reveal that headquarters’ political ties hamper their innovativeness, an important factor in stimulating subsidiary innovativeness and, in turn, reverse innovation transfer in Chinese multinationals. This study contributes to the literature on subsidiary entrepreneurship and emerging-market multinationals and suggests that, without a certain level of innovativeness at headquarters, relying only on strategic asset-seeking overseas investment to achieve innovation catch-up is problematic. Our findings point also to the co-evolving nature of Chinese multinationals’ competence growth and catch-up process, and support the view on the liability of stateness suffered by Chinese multinationals.

This paper relies on a comparative case study of two antibiotics R&D networks, ENABLE and CARB-X, to understand how interorganizational interactions can be managed to achieve social impact. In particular, we investigate (1) how particular management mechanisms and interorganizational interactions relate to the network's intended social impact, and (2) how these management mechanisms influence interorganizational interactions. We find that (1) the intended social impact influences the choice of management mechanisms from the very start of a partnership and orients the kind of interactions occurring within the network, and (2) that management mechanisms can shape the interactions unfolding in the network, but that the structural elements of these interactions also make these mechanisms more or less applicable to the network. We contribute to the Industrial Marketing & Purchasing (IMP) view with a model of managing networks building on the three concepts of: intended social impact, management mechanisms, and interorganizational interactions.

Purpose: Antibiotics shortages have become an increasingly common problem in Europe because of several reasons, including the offshoring of the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients for many of these products to low production cost countries, such as China and India. The problem has deteriorated because of the Covid-19 crisis that has put most global value chains (GVCs) under great stress. This situation has boosted extensive discussions among academics, practitioners and policymakers on possible changes to the configuration of GVCs. This paper aims to focus specifically on antibiotics supply chains from the perspective of a small country (Sweden), and analyse the pros and cons of backshoring and nearshoring alternatives, as a means to reduce drug shortages.

Design/methodology/approach: This work adopts a systemic perspective to capture the implications of reshoring for the different stakeholders involved in the antibiotics field. The present meso-analysis, focusing at the industry level, is based on multiple sources of primary data collected between 2014 and 2021, including participation in policy-related projects and interviews with over 100 representatives of key stakeholders in the antibiotics field.

Findings: This paper shows how reshoring can address the problems of drug shortages and reduce availability risk in antibiotics’ GVCs. However, the authors show that no simple and best solution exists because both alternatives of reshoring, i.e. backshoring and nearshoring, entail pros and cons for different stakeholders. The authors conclude with implications for policymakers and managers.

Research limitations/implications: The analysis of pros and cons of both backshoring and nearshoring for various stakeholders offers relevant implications for research on operations and supply management, international business and economics/political science.

Originality/value: This paper looks at reshoring as a policy-driven decision and provides an innovative systemic perspective to analyse the implications for different stakeholders of two reshoring options concerning the antibiotics supply chain.