Reshoring of Service Operations: Evidence from a Delphi Study

The reshoring phenomenon has been explored mainly in the context of manufacturing, while research on business service still appears lacking behind. To address this gap, the article explores the reshoring phenomenon relevance in the context of business services. The research applies a Delphi method developed along three rounds involving a panel of 18 experts. The results show that, although still being in its infancy, the reshoring phenomenon will impact significantly business services in the next future, but with its own specificity, thus deserving dedicated future research streams. Particularly the experts highlight that the main drivers leading to business service reshoring are quite different with respect to ones identified in manufacturing reshoring literature. Moreover, this study indicates that service reshoring will be fundamental in all the business services in which the technology cannot be considered as the main driver for service delivery and that requires a strong human relationship.