La lettre du GERPISA no 98 (décembre 1995)

Call for paper  -

Fourth International Colloquium
"The World Automotive Industry : between Homogenization and Hierarchy
Paris, 19th-21st june 1996
Second Call for Papers

Globalization is today the main issue for the automotive industry, both for the firms (carmakers and suppliers) which are developing global strategies adapted to the macro-economic environment and to the new rules of competition, and for the automobile workers whose employment and organization of work are subordinated to global competition. There would be no other choice : convergence among national and regional markets would award considerable competitive advantage to global firms. The idea of "one best way" (the transnational firm) is encountered once more, linked to the convergence hypothesis.

This representation of the globalization process is associated with the managerial discourse on lean production, of which it is one component. Contesting lean production as a unique model, the GERPISA programme "Emergence of New Industrial Models" (1992-95) has revealed that beyond a certain convergence related to the implementation of new shared industrial principles, diversity in profit strategies, specificity of firm's trajectories and hybridization process associated with the transfer of these principles are leading to a multiplicity of industrial models. Based on the results this program, the objective of the Fourth International Colloquium is to debate the hypothesis of the globalization of the automobile industry by searching for factors explaining variety in industrial models (the hypothesis of a single and unique model is effectively a direct outcome of the globalization thesis) and specifying forms of internationalization forms associated with the different industrial models.

One goal of the colloquium will therefore be to share up-to-date knowledge about current trends in the globalization of the automotive industry - its causes, forms and consequences - on the basis of a twin analysis: convergence/homogenization on the one hand, and hierarchy on the other. A second goal is to create the framework for a new research programme.

Questioning the convergence of automobile markets

The idea of a homogoneous and integrated world automobile market must be examined critically, since it presupposes a homogenization of demand in the different local and regional markets, and, prior to this, a convergence in the social use of the automobile in the different countries.

The question of the homogenization of global demand focuses in particular on the types of products sold in various markets, the various forms of market segmentation, and the current structures of markets and their development (past, future). This investigation concerns not only the Triad countries but also the emerging markets of South America, Eastern Europe and Asia.

Beyond investigating the reality of convergence, it is necessary to examine the different explanatory factors behind convergence or divergence in the demand. These include the classical demand factors (income, geography) and also forms of social use of the automobile (choice between public and private transport, car and city relationships, regulation on emissions, green car, etc.). Disparities in the relationship between society and the automobile influence emergence and diffusion, hybridization of industrial models.

In such a context, it is necessary to study international strategies of automotive firms (carmakers and suppliers), the capacity of industrial models to internationalize, and conditions for their transfer.

Homogenization / differentiation of products and industrial models transferability

Strategies of homogenization and differentiation of product and production depend on the evolution of the demand. At the product level, it is necessary to investigate the universality of automobile product and components (the identity and/or specificity of models and ranges in markets, global car strategy, platform sharing, commonalization) and its impact on the component industry (world sourcing, Japanese suppliers transplants in Europe and North America, American suppliers investment in Europe, etc.).

At the production level (broadly defined: design, manufacture, sale, management), are involved: types of transfer of new productive practices and conditions for keeping to disparities and experimentations within the same company, between its different plants and subsidiaries both in productive organization (product development, automation, processes, etc.) and in employment relationship (qualification, training, team-work, work humanization, unionism, etc.). This will extend the analysis of the hybridization of industrial models, particularly via comparative studies of the various plants of the same company localized in the different Triad regions and in the new automobile-producing countries.

Hierarchy in the world automotive industry

Hierarchy in the world automotive industry refers to the ways these international production structures are managed at the inter-firm and intra-firm levels. These concern vertical and horizontal strategic partnerships (carmakers-components makers, and between carmakers). Within firms, it is necessary to specify relationships between the parent company and its subsidiaries (domination / autonomy), and relationships between subsidiaries in the framework of spatial division of labour between countries and between regions.

This hierarchy includes: relocation to peripheral countries (Mexico, Eastern Europe or South East Asia), the specific global-local linkages of these new plants, transfer of technologies among company plants or to suppliers, regional integration strategies, and forms of integration in the local environment; without forgetting the impact of the globalization process on the employment relationship and productive organization of automotive firms in their country of origin.

Proposal for papers must fit into the framework described in this call for papers. Papers on emerging automotive countries (South America, South East Asia, India, China , Eastern Europe, South Africa or Turkey) will be particularly welcome..

Deadline for receipt of paper proposals - the paper or summary (minimum three pages) :

31st January 1996

Announcement of acceptance: before 1st March 1996

Final date for receipt of papers (paper and diskette/E-mail): 1st May 1996

Proposals should be sent to the following address:

GERPISA, Université d'Évry Val d'Essonne, 4 boulevard des Coquibus, 91025 Évry Cedex, France Phone : (33-1) 69 47 70 23 Fax : (33-1) 6947 70 07 E-mail : contact@gerpisa.univ-evry.fr

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