Managing innovation, technological change and new business models

The magnitude of the changes putting pressure on different automotive system actors to adapt their driving systems and acclimatize to radically new market environments have had a destabilising effect on organisations. These actors are having to open up to other partners coming from industries that are not part of their customary field of influence. They are also having to develop much more proactive relationships with public policymakers. Their R&D management and innovation organisation have been destabilised by these changes, which have led to the emergence within the automotive sector of "open innovation" experiments and practices worthy of full attention from social science researchers.

Studies focused on these issues within the automotive industry (and even in other sectors) merit further exploration. The same applies to research into new forms of the international organisation of design activities associated with the rising power of Indian, Brazilian, Russian or Chinese design centres.