Development and motives of off-shoring production activities: The german case

This paper examines the status quo, the development, the target and origin regions and the underlying motives of production outsourcing abroad and back-sourcing to the German location on the basis of a written survey of 1450 companies of the core sectors of the German manufacturing industry. The findings show that between 2001 and 2003 the share of companies relocating production abroad has increased. Simultaneously, the back-sourcer-outsourcer quota has been on the decrease, from 1 to 3.3 to 1 to 5.6. The new EU members have been the preferred target regions of production off-shoring activities. In 85 per cent of the cases factor costs have been one of the key criteria for the decision to relocate production abroad. The attempt to open new markets with the help of outsourcing ranks second with 40 per cent.