Are supply chains global or regional?

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the following questions: Are supply chainsrnglobal or regional? What are the performance implications for firms?rnDesign/methodology/approach - This paper classifies 183 large North American firms intornhome-region oriented, host-region oriented, bi-regional, and global firms by using geographicrndistributions of their upstream and downstream activities. The performance implications of thernregional supply chains of a broader set of 273 firms by using Tobin's Q and data on intra-regionalrnsales or assets are further evaluated.rnFindings - It is found that the evidence to support the regional nature of supply chains - that is, overrn85 percent of firms in our sample - have their supply chains within North America. The paper alsornfinds that a regional focus of firms in terms of sales contributes to improved performance as measuredrnby Tobin's Q.rnOriginality/value The regionalization perspective proposed by Rugman and Verbeke to developrnand test the regional nature of supply chains is applied.