A Geographic Sourcing Area Evaluation Model - Facilitating tool for strategic decision making

Abstract: International sourcing is growing in importance. As businesses around the world have become global, the intense competition drives cost cutting within purchasing. Rising up as the world’s number one sourcing market with its 1.3 billion citizens in only a few decades; China is a success story. But as the Chinese now seeks the next generation of growth far away from low value added production many companies and the global production network will need to adjust. But which instruments and models will companies need to use to find the next low cost sourcing area? This thesis aims to develop a geographic sourcing area evaluation model to be used in the sourcing decision process. By building a model based upon existing literature and adding new aspects, the authors have tried to develop a comprehensive tool for sourcing evaluation. The study undertaken during the thesis indicates that the model is applicable for the textile and clothing industry. However, a suggestion for further research is to test the geographical sourcing area evaluation model on other industries.