PurposeThis article aims to investigate the organisational implications of adopting Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, giving specific attention to operations. The paper addresses these implications in two directions: organisational prerequisites for, and consequences of, I4.0 technologies.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on a multiple case study of Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in manufacturing. Ten case studies have been developed through interviews, company visits and secondary data collection.FindingsThe multiple case study results show that: (1) a lean organisational structure supports effective adoption of I4.0 technologies; (2) introducing such technologies is linked to developing a new kind of job profile (i.e. the “Autonomous Operative Job Profile”); and (3) higher levels of technology adoption create a higher need for non-technical competences.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of this research relates to the highly heterogeneous maturity levels of the sampled companies, due to the relative newness of the I4.0 paradigm. Future research could, therefore, longitudinally analyse the technology integration process within organisations.Practical implicationsThis research provides preliminary evidence about how organisations and technologies co-evolve, thus suggesting that managers should co-design these areas. It also demonstrates the extreme importance of designing a structured process and a clear set of human resource management tools to favour SME organisational development.Originality/valueThe study is built upon a conceptual framework derived from the sociotechnical perspective that analyses the interconnections between technology implementation and organisational change. From the results, three research propositions are derived to be tested on a larger scale.

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This study aims to develop a framework for reshoring research, specifying the aspects encompassing a full case description. The article reports an analysis of existing case based research focusing on reshoring and the previous offshoring events, with the aim to advance the knowledge within the field through an accumulation process. The selected methodology to achieve this purpose is meta-synthesis, a type of meta-analysis applied to the analysis of qualitative data. The analyzed data are retrieved from a sample of 14 articles including cases of offshoring and subsequent reshoring processes. The sample represent the total population of articles published in peer-reviewed sources. By focusing on the analysis on the article level and the findings generated by the original authors, the study allowed to build a comprehensive framework to lead future reshoring research, as well as to demonstrate the suitability of the methodology in achieving knowledge accumulation even if the articles have different characteristics in terms of theoretical perspectives, unit of analysis, number of cases and context. In doing so, this study contributes to the field of reshoring and more widely to the operations and supply chain management field. Furthermore, this research generates many practical implications, by condensing all the evidences about reshoring so far collected in one single study, thus providing examples of challenges and best-practices.

Over the last decade, reshoring has increasingly attracted the attention of practitioners, policy makers and scholars. While a significant number of articles have analysed drivers, locations and activities involved in reshoring decisions, the decision-making and implementation processes (i.e., "how to reshore") still lack empirical analyses. In addition, the few existing frameworks do not include the behavioural aspects characterizing human decision-making, that have proved to be relevant in the case of offshoring and reshoring decisions. Through a multiple case study approach, this paper seeks to address this gap by shedding light on the phases of the two aforementioned processes, the information collected, the stakeholders involved, and the criticalities faced. Based on the empirical analyses and the use of the behavioural perspective, we develop four original propositions that might guide both future research and management practice in this field. In addition, the results from the cases provide a reference for companies willing to implement a reshoring decision and in search for past experiences on which to build on.