Product Recalls and Supply Chain Responsiveness

Abstract

The increase in product recalls which occurred in recent years is mainly due to the globalization of the supply chains, in particular the outsourcing and offshoring of manufacturing and distribution. Besides being the main cause of recall, in this paper we argue that outsourcing (domestic and international) and offshoring may also affect the supply chain responsiveness in managing the recall itself. We test a number of hypotheses on this theme empirically on the pharmaceutical sector by using data collected from the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA).