1 Offshoring and nearshoring success: the importance of strategic reasons Federico Caniato (federico.caniato@polimi.it ) Politecnico di Milano Ruggero Golini (ruggero.golini@unibg.it ) Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Italy Matteo Kalchschmidt (matteo.kalchschmidt@unibg.it ) Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Italy Abstract In the last decades moving the production abroad has become a common practice for companies willing to take the opportunity of localization advantages in other countries. However, the business performance may not always be positive and it can depend on the target country and the underlying strategic reasons. By means of a sample of 227 Western European companies we analyze the relationship between the strategic reasons to move production abroad and the performance achieved, separately for offshoring and nearshoring contexts. Results show that strategic reasons are actually associated to higher or lower business performance, but the relationships change in nearshoring or offshoring contexts. Keywords: Off-shoring strategies; IMSS; Business Performance Introduction In the last decades companies’ supply chains have expanded over the national barriers due to increasing competitive pressures, reduced trade barriers and advance in transportation and communication technologies. In particular moving the production abroad has become a common practice for companies willing to take the opportunity of localization advantages in other countries. This trend is witnessed by the increase in the FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) made among different countries. According to (UNCTAD, 2010), FDI at the global level declined in 2008 and 2009 after the peak reached in 2007. In the first half of the 2010, a modest recovery has been observed and cautious optimism is shown for the next years. Historically, largest share of investments inflows has been accounted by developed economies, however, in 2009, half of the global economic inflows were attracted by developing and transition economies. Moreover developing and transition economies generated one quarter of the global FDI outflows. Different international organizations (e.g. UNCTAD, OECD) have reported intensively on trends among US firms, but increasingly also among Western European