Companies recognize international sourcing as a business practice useful to reduce product prices, deal with supply shortages and identify new competitive suppliers. Effective international sourcing implies the integration and coordination of materials, processes, information flows and multiple...

Motivated by the disintegration of supply networks observed in the automotive, textile and electronics industry, we discuss the impact of such phenomena on the network players. We hypothesize that the state of disintegration is not sustainable and will be followed by an eventual reintegration....