Background: In the last decades, with a shift in global competitive conditions, increased labor

costs, developments in automation and robotics, rising environmental concerns, and increased

importance of country of origin from a consumer perspective, manufacturing companies started

moving their production back to their respective home countries, while others are staying

offshore. To address the above-mentioned changes, reshoring can possibly become a suitable

strategy for every firm, which operates in its specific industry and creates a special internal and

external environment due to the interaction with its customers, suppliers, employees, and other

stakeholders. However, it is yet unexplored how firm-specific factors can influence its

motivation to reshore.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore and establish links between motivations to

reshore and firm-related contingent factors and develop theoretical propositions which add value

for theory and practice alike. The fulfillment of the purpose of the research is done in two stages.

Firstly, firm-related factors that have contingent effects on motivations to reshore are identified.

Secondly, once the factors and respective motivations are known, the influence of these firmrelated

contingent factors on motivations to reshore is established.

Method: To fulfill the purpose of the thesis, the qualitative case study method is applied. The

chosen method with multiple cases allows to create valid propositions, which can be further

tested deductively in separate studies. The data is collected via semi-structured interviews from

four Swedish manufacturing companies that recently moved their production back to Sweden.

The analysis is held in two stages. Each case is analyzed individually using the explanation

building and logic models strategy. Later, with the purpose of developing theoretical

propositions, the findings are synthesized in the cross-case analysis.

Conclusion: There are two major contributions both of which are novel to the academic area.

Nine firm-related factors which have contingent effects on motivations to reshore are derived

and 13 theoretical propositions of how these factors are affecting motivations to reshore are

developed. The results show that firm-related contingent factors and motivations to reshore are in

a causal-effect relationship which depends on the respective case situation and cannot always be

generalized. This thesis can be seen as an incremental step for further research possibilities in the

field, whereas the firm’s specific context is vital.