Sub-themes: New Product Development; New forms of R&D; Productive models; Business model innovation; The value chain of Chinese NEV industry;
Proposals submitted under this theme will explore how the transition to electrification, digitalization, software defined vehicles, smart mobility and the quest for a more sustainable auto industry, including the development of circular economy, is reshaping international production and the nodes of the global auto value chain.
A special focus will be given this year to the interplay between these underlying technological shifts and the growing importance of national economic and technological sovereignty in re-structuring regional automotive value chains.
How does the return to protectionism affect the access to new technologies, their development and implementation by OEMs and suppliers? Do national governments and their industrial policies play a more important role in shaping the development of these technologies? How the productive models of OEMs and suppliers evolve in this new context? How are regional and global value chains transformed when the search for technological sovereignty outweighs the search for economic efficiency?
Papers in this stream can also investigate the rise of emerging auto players and national industries, as well as their industrial strategies to grab new competitive niches linked to the production of EVs, the development of business models for connected cars, or any other new technologies related to the current electric/digital transition: from different types of hybrid vehicles to fuel cell vehicles. They could focus on strategies to integrate into the existing global auto chain, or to build new value chains at regional or local levels. They could also analyse the interplay between electrification and the rise of new mobility services (ridesharing, carsharing) and the emergence of new business models in the context of MaaS (Mobility as a Service) and BaaS (Battery as a Service) as well as the evolving role of automated driving technologies in these sweeping transformations.
Particular interest will be given to papers investigating structures and players within new battery industries and the battery value chain: who are the emerging actors? What segments are they trying to win and what strategies are they implementing to do so? What tasks are they performing and how are they positioned within the global governance of existing chains?
In this regard, papers exploring cases in the Global South, and questions related to the political economy of raw material extraction will be particularly welcome. More generally, we will consider papers analysing the raw material supply chain, dealing with the challenges raised by end of life of batteries, and the implications of electrification for the circular economy in the automotive sector.
Given the increasing central role of China in the global automotive industry, we very much welcome papers that analyse Chinese companies, their productive models, their corporate governance, their internationalization strategies, their specific productive organization and employment relations.
Connections with issues covered under theme 1 -i.e. new divisions of labour and labour restructuring in the global auto chain, linked to electrification, will also be considered.
