PhD Defence Thomas Körber | Transcontinental sourcing - Locational aspects in global sourcing trends

Transcontinental sourcing - Locational aspects in global sourcing trends 

Thomas Körber is a PhD candidate in the Department of Technology Management and Supply. (Co)Promotors are prof.dr.habil. H. Schiele and dr.ir. N.J. Pulles from the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences.

The dissertation discusses ways how companies can deal with commodity groups with a high share of transcontinental suppliers. Transcontinental sourcing, which means sourcing from essential suppliers located on other continents, is examined using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

The research starts with a theoretical approach and focuses on transcontinental sourcing as a special form of global sourcing. Next to a literature research of global sourcing, different theories such as the attraction theory, principal agent theory and country of origin theory are integrated, to link these theories to the challenges and motives of transcontinental sourcing.

Within the qualitative research semi-structured interviews with purchasing experts were conducted. In this context, challenges, risks, motives, and trends of transcontinental sourcing are examined using the model of Gioia to structure the data. Choice and ranking card experiments represent the quantitative research approach.

Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the most important motives for choosing transcontinental suppliers, while challenges and corresponding solutions are presented. Within this research, we investigated transcontinental sourcing trends, integrating major effects of crises like the Covid- 19 pandemic as well as the Ukraine-Russia war. In total, it can be stated that transcontinental sourcing makes an essential contribution to sourcing strategies of companies, even if there are parallel reshoring activities, which are evident in the semi-structured interviews and in terms of global supply chain disruptions and crises. However, the importance of transcontinental sourcing is based on opportunities in terms of technology, availability, price-performance ratio and innovative capacity of these essential suppliers. It remains exciting to see how this trend will develop further, with regard to information technologies or certain materials for electronic components.