Friendshoring in international business: Theoretical Foundations and a Typological Framework

Geopolitical tensions increasingly reshape international business discourse, from altering the criteria used to select suppliers and buyers in global value chains to influencing ownership structures in multinational enterprises and expanding regulatory interventions grounded in national-security concerns. These shifts have clear historical antecedents in diplomatic and economic practices, but they have recently been reframed under the label “friendshoring.” This article examines the concept of friendshoring through three complementary approach, operational reconfiguration, international relations, and terminology, to position the phenomenon across multiple analytical domains. Building on this examination, the study identifies two core dimensions that underpin friendshoring: mutual exchange, grounded in resource dependence theory, and embeddedness capacity, informed by stakeholder theory. Drawing on these dimensions, the article develops a four-quadrant typology of friendshoring that distinguishes Contractual Alliance, Short-term Alliance, Supportive Alliance, and Long-term Alliance. Finally, the typology is used to revisit and deconstruct widely held myths about friendshoring, revealing conceptual ambiguities and analytical gaps that continue to shape contemporary debates.