Title: The global structure of the automotive industry: a network-based view

Authors: Elisa Flori; Giuseppe Caruso; Francesco Pattarin; Giovanni Solinas

Addresses: Department of Economics and Finance, Luiss Guido Carli, Viale Pola 12, 00198 Rome, Italy; Marco Biagi Department of Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Jacopo Berengario, 51, 41121 Modena, Italy ' Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Via delle Pandette, 59, 50127 Florence, Italy ' Marco Biagi Department of Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Jacopo Berengario, 51, 41121 Modena, Italy ' Marco Biagi Department of Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Jacopo Berengario, 51, 41121 Modena, Italy

Abstract: We contribute to the debate on the internationalisation and fragmentation of production in the automotive industry by mapping its global value chain network as of 2020, shedding new light on its structure and explaining it by looking at the processes that have shaped it over the recent decades. Our network includes 3,323 companies connected by 11,182 trade links. Firms are from 60 countries and belong to 135 industries; they generated an average annual sales volume of nearly USD 27 billion between 2018 and 2020. Beyond investigating the overall network structure, we extract the corporate subnetworks of ten prominent carmakers - General Motors, Ford, Stellantis, Volkswagen, Renault, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, BYD, and Great Wall - and identify their partners' degree of geographical and industrial diversification. While the regional dimension of the industry is essential, we find significant overlaps across many companies' supply chains and a core of large international suppliers.

Keywords: global value chains; automotive industry; network analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2024.141521

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2024 Vol.24 No.2, pp.193 - 216

Received: 04 Oct 2023
Accepted: 30 Jan 2024
Published online: 19 Sep 2024 *

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