Reshoring: a road to industry 4.0 transformation

The phenomenon of reshoring and its impact on global trade has recently garnered the attention of not only practitioners but also policymakers and scholars. Numerous scholars have highlighted the challenges of reshoring, such as supply chain disruption, labour shortages and sustainability issues, from various perspectives. Some have pinpointed technological advancements as enablers for addressing these challenges through the deployment of cloud-based artificial intelligence technologies and efficient remote management as part of the Industry 4.0 transformation. As Industry 4.0 shifts from being technology-driven to value-driven, this introductory essay for the special issue on reshoring delves into the current boundaries of our understanding and proposes recommendations for future research on this topic.