Three uncertainties looming over the European auto industry

The European automotive industry has once again entered a period of uproar. The crisis of 2008/2009 is far from over but probably marks the start of a new era that some observers are starting to refer to as the second automobile revolution. In this article, we will be trying to emphasize three major uncertainties that weigh upon the European automotive industry. The first relates to the future products that the sector is looking to manufacture and sell. This will involve questions about electric vehicles but also how internal combustion vehicles might be sold to more tone-deaf European consumers. The second section will revisit the outsourcing strategies that have arisen over the past 30 years, together with their increasingly obvious limitations. The final section will highlight the profound geographic recomposition that has taken place under our eyes over the past decade or so, and which speaks directly to the issue of Old Europe’s productive capacities in the future.Automobile industry, electric vehicles, industrial architecture, carmakers, industrial geography, first tier suppliers

Egyptian pyramid or Aztec pyramid: How should we describe the industrial architecture of automotive supply chains in Europe?

This article questions a terminology that is frequently used to describe automotive supply chains’ industrial architecture. Since vertical disintegration became a trend in the 1980s, this architecture has been represented using the image of the pyramid. Implicitly, authors have had the image of an Egyptian pyramid in mind, one that is pointed at the top and broad at the base. We will demonstrate that even if pyramids are an appropriate image, in the auto industry the Aztec variant, with its shortened peak and room for SMEs, is more accurate. The paper’s first section – with its more historical focus – explains the birth of the Egyptian pyramid. The section 2 puts forward the idea that the Egyptian metaphor is more misleading than informative. We start by demonstrating that overusing this metaphor will ultimately exclude a number of very strategic companies from analysis. This is followed by a presentation of the findings from a study of 750 French SMEs*, in which it is demonstrated both that some continue to maintain direct access to carmakers and also that the hierarchy of tiers comprising this supply chain features greater porosity than is commonly recognized.modularity, supply chain, industrial architecture, SME, automobile.

Organizational change and institutional diversity (In French)

This paper proposes a review of the literature on the analysis of organizational change. Part 1 identifies three main factors of institutional change: competition, technological change and evolution in the institutional environment. Part 2 discusses industrial dynamics’ approaches of the organizational change, from a diachronic point of view (historical dimension) and from a synchronic one (diversity of firms’ organizational model within a sectorial or institutional context).Business models; Firms; Institutional diversity; Organizational change

Is the automotive supply chain compatible with Corporate Social Responsible practices? (In French)

This paper tries to examine what are the conditions of the diffusion of Corporate Social Responsibility in the first tier suppliers. These types of firms are specific because, if they are subcontractors, they are also big firms with a real capability to develop their own strategies. We discuss critically the Business Case approach and the other approaches which are looking for efficiency of CSR in terms of production cost or productivity. We propose to consider how the vertical relationships are really built, and by studying the principles of buyer-suppliers coordination, we show that these relationships are creating a lot of contradictions with CSR objectives.Corporate social responsibility, CSR, Coordination, Automotive, First tier suppliers

A comparative analysis of automobile parts trade exchange between France and Germany: crossing international economics and industrial dynamics (In French)

This paper proposes a new way for analysing the international trade of intermediaries good. We consider the case of automobile parts with the objective to cross analytic tools from international economics and industrial dynamics. Within the Economy of proximity framework, we propose a method for studying the international fragmentation of global value chain. We construct a typology for auto parts based on the modularity approach and we identify three types of parts: components, meso-components and macro-components. Then we study the evolution of trade for France and Germany for 20 parts during the period 2003/2008. Our main empirical conclusion is to stress that the situation of the German part industry is less favourable that we usually consider and that it is more and more dependant from eastern European countries. We conclude we some suggestions for improving this methodology.modularity; international trade; global value chain; automobile; France; Germany

Spatial dynamics of firms (In French)

This paper is a survey of the literature about the spatial dynamics of firms. In a first part, we discuss about the traditional theories of location. We review the insights of these theories but also their limits. In particular, we stress the necessity to organize a true dialog between the approaches focusing on firms\' organization, and those who are focusing on the territorial dimension. In other words, we stress that it is a necessity to cross Industrial dynamics and Regional science. In this perspective, the second part of the paper explores the contribution of the Economics of Proximities’ approach. After a presentation of the French school of proximity, we apply this framework to some key current issuesIndustry, Space, Location, Firm, Proximity