Cheng Yang, Ruihong Gao, Zheng Liu
With the trend of globalisation, manufacturing companies configure their supply networks and transfer production facilities from one location to another. Whilst current literature mainly focuses on factors affecting production relocations, less is known about the implementation process which contains evolving activities across manufacturing and supply levels. In this paper, we ask the following research question: How do firms implement their production relocation process, when considering the impacts of manufacturing and supply networks? Through a longitudinal case study of a manufacturing company in Taiwan, we develop a process-oriented framework with five phases, namely preparation, manufacturing network relocation, supply network relocation, network development, and network integration. Our study further highlights the interdependent connection between manufacturing networks and supply networks. The study provides guidance to companies which are involved in production relocation decisions in the changing international business context.