Cloud Business

Exploring the Trend of Near-Sourcing

to Eastern Europe

The Case of Swedish Manufacturers

Paper within:

Master Thesis in Business Administration

Author:

Emelie Domeij 840614-7846

Gunita Laursone 890320-T005

Tutor:

Henrik Agndal

Jönköping

May 2012

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, we would like to show our gratitude to our tutor,

Henrik Agndal, for his feedback and guidance throughout this writing process along

with the other groups that were participating in the seminars giving constructive criticism.

We would also like to thank the respondents for their insights and contribution to the

project. The knowledge, experiences and thoughts shared by them gave us a greater

understanding of the reality of our research and we really appreciate that they spent their

scarce time to participate in the interviews.

Finally, we would like to thank our families, friends and boyfriends for continued

motivation, patience and support.

Emelie Domeij and Gunita Laursone

Jönköping, 14th May 2012

i

Master’s Thesis in Business Administration

Title:

Exploring the Trend of Near-Sourcing to Eastern-Europe: the Case

of Swedish Manufacturers

Author:

Emelie Domeij, Gunita Laursone

Tutor:

Henrik Agndal

Date:

2012-05-14

Subject terms:

manufacturing outsourcing, Swedish manufacturers, offshore outsourcing, far-sourcing, China, near-sourcing, Eastern Europe

Abstract

Outsourcing has been a way for firms to reduce their cost of production and enabling them

to focus on their core competencies for decades. As the total costs for manufacturing in

China – the most prominent outsourcing location, are increasing due to unfavourable market changes, which in turn leads to loss of the competitive advantage, European companies

are more and more often realizing and pursuing the benefits of ‘near-sourcing’ their manufacturing operations to Eastern European countries.

This paper is a study of outsourcing decisions related...