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/implic...