Offshore supplier relations: knowledge integration among small businesses

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the area of knowledge integration between relations based upon the assumption that if you do not integrate knowledge between the different relations, the possibility of maintaining, improving or adjusting your product portfolio through your offshore working relationships will either disappear or be severely reduced. Design/methodology/approach The experienced journey of four small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) within the textile and wood industries are presented regarding how they change their direction and organisational routines due to challenges concerning knowledge integration within their respective supply relations. Findings Different approaches are shown of how to combine different knowledge dimensions within the supply chain and how the demands towards relations management capabilities are affected by the challenges of mainly knowledge transfer and translation created by the strategic offshore sourcing decisions. Research limitations/implications As the conclusions are based upon a limited number of cases studied within a limited time frame, further investigations to confirm the findings, especially with case companies that integrate more complex knowledge types, would be interesting. Practical implications The paper proposes that when making strategic offshore sourcing decisions, companies should consider more classic variables like cost, quality and flexibility in much more detail and the different knowledge dimensions (knowledge characteristics, learning capability, knowledge flow, cultural characteristics and stickiness) identified in the paper and thereby the longer‐term demands regarding knowledge integration in offshore supply relations. Originality/value The paper identifies different approaches of how to combine different knowledge dimensions within the supply chain and how relations management capabilities are affected by the knowledge integration challenges of mainly knowledge transfer and translation created by the strategic offshore sourcing decisions in SMEs in the manufacturing industry.

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