Reshoring for Sustainability: A Multi-Theory Decision-Making Framework

Abstract

Sustainability has been increasingly recognised as an important consideration for firms in reshoring decisions. Although there are frameworks in the literature that explain the reshoring decision, limited attention has been given to integrating sustainability issues into the analysis, with much of the attention being given to economic factors. This paper integrates environmental, social and economic factors into a reshoring framework through employing the theoretical perspectives of the Natural resource-based view, the Social resource-based view, the Eclectic paradigm and Transaction cost economics. The paper highlights the interdependencies between these perspectives, and adds theoretical depth to our understanding of how social, environmental and economic factors interact to influence the reshoring decision.