Sustaining Industrial Competitiveness After the Crisis : Lessons From the Automotive Industry

Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach and using the case of the automotive industry as a starting point this volume discusses how industrial companies can remain competitive in spite of the current economic downturn. The economic downturn of 2008-2009 and the disaster that hit Japan in 2011 exasperated the structural problems of the automotive industry, ranging from over-stretched supply chains to excess capacity and pressures to generate more environmentally-friendly products. Car production recovered swiftly from 2008 but several of the largest car manufacturers are in trouble, and the industry suffers from low levels of profitability. This book outlines the status of the industry and analyses the challenges that car-makers are facing, taking advantage of the multidisciplinary and cross-country expertise of the authors. Its chapters underline the importance of emerging markets, not only as drivers of demand growth but possibly also as loci of future innovations Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Introduction....Pages 1-17 The Automotive Industry After the Crisis: Where Does Europe Stand?....Pages 18-34 The Crisis from a Supply Chain Perspective: The Case of the Italian Automotive Suppliers....Pages 35-56 The Toyota Way and the Crisis: A New Industrial Divide?....Pages 57-103 The Effects of Low-Probability, High-Impact Events on Automotive Supply Chains: Black Swans and the 2011 Earthquake-Tsunami Disaster that Hit Japan....Pages 104-113 Chinese FDI in the European Automotive Sector....Pages 114-133 Strategies and Performances of European Carmakers in China under the Shadow of the Global Financial Crisis....Pages 134-158 From Turin to Detroit....Pages 159-172 Electric Cars: Will it be Boom or Another False Start?....Pages 173-200 Environmental Policies and Lobbying by Automotive Makers in Europe....Pages 201-225 Opportunities and Challenges for Open Innovation in the Automotive Industry....Pages 226-238 Back Matter....Pages 239-241 "The economic downturn of 2008-2009 and the disaster that hit Japan in 2011 exasperated the structural problems of the automotive industry, ranging from over-stretched supply chains to excess capacity and pressures to generate more environmentally-friendly products. Car production recovered swiftly from 2008 but several of the largest car manufacturers are in trouble, and the industry suffers from low levels of profitability. This book outlines the status of the industry and analyses the challenges that car-makers are facing, taking advantage of the multidisciplinary and cross-country expertise of the authors. Its chapters underline the importance of emerging markets, not only as drivers of demand growth but possibly also as loci of future innovations"--Provided by publisher