Drivers of Backshoring: An exploration of the applicability of theory. A qualitative case study analysis of six Swedish companies.

Sammanfattning: Backshoring has been the focus of a growing body of research in recent years, with several different determinants having been postulated through theoretical perspectives in the previous research. This study aims to determine how applicable these perspectives and their reasoning are to cases of backshoring of six Swedish companies. In this context backshoring is defined as the relocation of production from a foreign country back to the home country of the firm. To explore the research question regarding the applicability of these determinants, or drivers as they are referred to in this text, six Swedish companies’ annual reports and relevant news articles were analyzed through a qualitative methodology based on thematic analysis. Specifically codes were extracted from previous literature and categorized based on their theoretical significance. The results of the analysis indicate that the current theory based drivers being reported are insufficient to explain why companies choose to backshore production. The research results suggest that more strategy and market based drivers need to be explored within the context of established International Business (IB) theories such as Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), the Resource Based View (RBV), and the eclectic paradigm.