Chine

Le fossé entre les intentions de l’Etat Chinois et la réalité peut-il être comblé ?

Submitted by Bernard Jullien, GIS-Gerpisa, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan on 2 May, 2012 - 12:39
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directeur du Gerpisa et conseiller scientifique de la Chaire de Management des Réseaux du Groupe Essca.

Les signes d’un durcissement des conditions faites aux grands constructeurs mondiaux pour continuer de profiter des volumes, des consentements à payer et in fine de la profitabilité qu’offre leur marché de plus de 18 millions de véhicules par an étaient attendus et se sont multipliés ces derniers mois. Citons en quelques uns.
i) Le NDRC (National Development Research Council) a annoncé en décembre de nouvelles conditions pour les investissements directs étrangers et celles ci sont clairement restrictives.
ii) Le gouvernement a indiqué en mars que les achats des administrations – y compris ceux des véhicules de fonction des hauts fonctionnaires – devraient désormais se référer à une liste de véhicules pré-sélectionnés par l’Etat qui, comme par hasard, ne comprend que des véhicules "chinois".
iii) Les coentreprises sont désormais obligées de développer à côté de leurs marques "mondiales" des marques chinoises et les grands partenaires des occidentaux comme FAW ou SAIC – qui sont des entreprises d’Etat – font renaître, seules, des anciennes marques chinoises. Ce sera Hongqi ("Drapeau Rouge") pour FAW dont la limousine H7 entend transporter demain les Premier ministre et Shanghai pour SAIC qui, dans un premier temps au moins, pourrait ainsi re-badger certaines Roewe (ex-Rover). read more

Development of Chinese New Energy Vehicle Industry: Business Model versus Technology Innovation

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Hua, WANG, & Chris Kimble (2012).  Development of Chinese New Energy Vehicle Industry: Business Model versus Technology Innovation. Gerpisa colloquium. This paper contrasts two approaches to the development of what might be termed the new energy vehicle industry in China. The Electric Vehicle (EV) segment of this industry is based upon finding a substitute for existing petrol driven vehicles. Its development relies on technological innovation and strong central government intervention, both through preferential policies and through significant capital investment, for its success. However, outside the EV sector another market for what might also be considered new energy vehicles has developed based around Low-Speed Electric Vehicles (LSEVs). The official classification for new energy vehicle covers pure electric and electric hybrid vehicles but does not include LSEVs, which are based on a simple and mature technology. The growth of this market stems from indigenous demand and a focus on business model innovation. Unlike the EV sector, the LSEV sector only has the support of a few regional governments, and yet, despite this more than 13 times more LSEVs were sold in China in 2011 than EVs. In this paper, we will compare the effectiveness of technology and business model driven innovation as motors for the Chinese Electric Vehicle industry.
Thème: Management de l’innovation, changements technologiques, changements de business models
Thème: Managing innovation, technological change and new business models

Competitiveness of the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese Automobile Industries

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Shioji, Hiromi (2012).  Competitiveness of the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese Automobile Industries. Gerpisa colloquium. The automobile industry has been developing remarkably in the East Asian countries—Japan, Korea, and China—in recent years. In terms of domestic production, China produced 18.3 million vehicles in 2010, more than any other country in the world. Japan is the second largest, at 9.6 million. Korea ranks fifth, at 4.3 million. Out of the top five automobile industries, three are in East Asia. In 2001, Japan held the second place, and Korea the fifth; China was in the seventh place. This momentum will not stagnate; production in China will increase to around 25 million by the middle of the 2010s, and is likely to exceed the output of other countries. This paper aims to analyse the international competitiveness of the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese automobile industries. Analysing in detail the production, sales, and import/export statistics published by each country’s Automobile Manufacturer Association, we clarify the competitiveness of each country and the differences among them. There are many existing research studies on the competitiveness of the East Asian automobile industries.3 These studies analysed many aspects of automobile makers, such as their development, production, distribution, finance, supply chains, organizational capability, industrial policies of government, and historical process. There is, however, little research about how the international competitiveness of a country’s automobile industry as a whole can be examined quantitatively. Most existing research only introduces production and export numbers as numerical indices of international competitiveness; these numbers are based only on ‘Producer Country Base’ (later described). This paper analyses the total international competitiveness of the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese automobile industries.
Thème: Processus d’émergence des nouvelles industries automobiles
Thème: The emergence of new automotive industries

Creative accumulation in a mature industry - Understanding the current transformation of the automotive industry

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Berggren, Christian (2012).  Creative accumulation in a mature industry - Understanding the current transformation of the automotive industry. Gerpisa colloquium Krakow May 30 - June 1. The automobile industry constitutes a paradox for established innovation theories. Few sectors have displayed such stability in their dominant product designs and incremental improvement of core technologies as the automotive industry, making it an archetypical example of a capital-intensive, oligopolistic sector competing on process efficiencies along stable trajectories. Emerging economies and state support have added a few new actors, and hard-pressed “old economies” have seen the demise of some older firms, but the basic industry structure has remained unchanged for a long time. Repeatedly researchers have expected this stable pattern to break down and open up for new radical departures, for example in the aftermath of the oil shocks in the early 1980s (Altshuler 1984), following rising environmental concerns (Nieuwenhuis and Wells 1997), or the Californian zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) mandate (Pilkington and Dyerson 2005). But the incremental trajectory prevailed and researchers forecast that the industry would fail to accommodate new technologies or regulation. Extrapolating previous trends, Fontaras & Samaras (2010:1832), for example, argued that the European industry would have great difficulties in achieving EU´s emissions targets for 2012/15, since their technologies were already “being pushed to their limits”. In the same vein, the innovation theorist Clayton Christensen predicted that electrical vehicles implied a disruptive threat to established automakers “…the electric vehicle is not only a disruptive innovation, but it involves massive architectural reconfiguration as well, a reconfiguration that must occur not only within the product itself but across the entire value chain…”(Christensen, 1997/2003, p. 252). In the tradition of industrial life cycle studies, innovation and change was expected to come from new firms enjoying an “attacker´s advantage”, which incumbents with their “core rigidities” would have a hard time to match. And yet, the last five years have witnessed a remarkable vitality among automotive incumbents, both car makers (OEMs) and component specialists. Improvements in established technologies have accelerated, and far from being ”pushed to the limit”, a report from Transport & Environment, 2011 shows that automakers will comply with EU´s new CO2 emission limits well ahead of time. At the same time a range of new modular innovations are introduced, from multi-speed gearboxes and dual-clutch transmissions, advanced valve management systems and regenerative braking, to collision avoidance systems and other proactive safety equipment. Ten years after corporate lawyers succeeded in winding down the Californian Zero Emissions Mandate, electric vehicles have re-emerged on the back of advances in lithium-ion technologies. The new EV industry includes startups, such as Tesla and Fisker. But far from being caught off-guard, incumbents dominate sales and production. Whereas the highly publicized Tesla sold 2,500 roadsters 2008-2011, Nissan’s produced 10,000 Leaf cars in its first fiscal year ending in March 2011, and Mitsubishi 5,000 EVs in 2010. Rather than being a breakthrough opportunity for “attackers”, the surge in interest for electric vehicles offers Japanese incumbents who failed to compete with Toyota´s hybrid cars a new chance, making use of economies of both scale and scope. And far from implying a “massive architectural reconfiguration …across the entire value chain” the new technologies involve a dynamic expansion of supplier networks, with ample opportunities for incumbents such as Bosch, Continental and Valeo to augment product lines with profitable high-tech modules. The growth of Asian economies, in particular China, signifies an epochal shift in the centre of the industry, but so far this change has not threatened but created opportunities for Western incumbents. Taken over by Geely in 2010, Volvo Cars, for example, has embarked on its boldest expansion plans ever, doubling production capacity within a few years, and launching highly ambitious product and technology plans, with its Scalable Product Architecture for product development, a new platform for future power-trains (“Volvo Environmental Architechture”) and an ambition to take a lead in premium market for electrified vehicles, such as a plug-in diesel hybrids. How can this “incumbent vitality” be explained in theoretical terms? Previous GERPISA studies, for example Freyssenet (2009) has analyzed different corporate trajectories within the industry. This paper purports to analyze dynamics at an industry level, which neither fits the “creative destruction” framework, nor the notion of incremental innovation in stable structures. Instead the paper will propose creative accumulation as a fruitful concept to grasp the composite and contradictory nature of current developments in the auto industrial (cf Bergek et al 2011). Creative accumulation stresses the tension between the creativity aspect, implying responses outside of the range of existing practice, and the accumulation aspect, implying knowledge development on the basis of established practices. Creative accumulation means that new and old technological disciplines and areas of expertise have to interact in novel ways to develop products with substantially improved or changed performance. New fields of knowledge have to be aligned with existing, rapidly evolving, technologies – there is no Archimedian fixed point. The paper ends by discussing organizational implications, in particular the challenge of managing creative accumulation processes by means of dynamic integration, instead of separation and isolation, as recommended in the literature on disruptive innovation.
Thème: Management de l’innovation, changements technologiques, changements de business models
Thème: Managing innovation, technological change and new business models

Segmentation and transitions between temporary and long-term employment. Comparison of employment relations in automobile companies in the BRIC countries

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Jürgens, Ulrich, & Martin Krzywdzinski (2012).  Segmentation and transitions between temporary and long-term employment. Comparison of employment relations in automobile companies in the BRIC countries. Gerpisa colloquium. The BRIC countries are often characterized by the dominance of nonstandard employment relations (temporary, agency and contract work) and informal work. But which approaches do the automobile companies follow in the BRIC countries? Do the companies rely on standard long-term employment relationships and constitute “protected islands” within the respective national economies? Or do the companies pursue the approach of segmentation between a (small) core workforce and a (broad) margin of temporary employment? How do skill requirements, labor market conditions and the regulation in the BRIC countries influence the companies’ approaches?
Thème: Nouvelles divisions internationales du travail et transformations des relations d’emploi
Thème: A new international division of labor and changes in employment relationships

Le coût de l’immobilier et le développement de l’automobile : une question d’économie politique

Submitted by Bernard Jullien, GIS-Gerpisa, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan on 12 March, 2012 - 14:13
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La chronique hébdomadaire de Bernard Jullien directeur du Gerpisa et conseiller scientifique de la Chaire de Management des Réseaux du Groupe Essca.

Le Gerpisa recevait cette semaine un de ses membres allemands, Martin Krzywdzinski, qui, avec Ulrich Jürgens, a conduit ces trois dernières années, un travail comparatif sur les formes de gestion des ressources humaines qu’un grand constructeur allemand, d’une part et un grand constructeur japonais, d’autre part appliquent au Brésil, en Russie, en Inde et en Chine, dans leurs usines plus ou moins récentes. L’importance et les apports de cette recherche conduiront immanquablement à ce que, dès sa publication, il suscite un intérêt tel qu’il nous donnera l’occasion d’y revenir.

Un aspect spécifique retiendra ici notre attention : c’est l’importance des conditions dans lesquelles les salariés peuvent se loger. De l’aveu même des chercheurs, ils n’avaient pas prévu dans leur protocole d’enquête de s’y attacher pas plus – soulignent-ils – que les décideurs des grands constructeurs concernés n’avaient planifié leurs implantations en intégrant cette dimension. C’est le caractère récurrent des préoccupations exprimées à ce sujet chez les salariés comme chez les managers qui a conduit les chercheurs à en faire un des items clés de la comparaison. read more

Renault-Nissan et GM-PSA : similitudes et différences

Submitted by Bernard Jullien, GIS-Gerpisa, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan on 5 March, 2012 - 14:25
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La chronique hébdomadaire de Bernard Jullien directeur du Gerpisa et conseiller scientifique de la Chaire de Management des Réseaux du Groupe Essca.

Même si ceci ne manquera pas de susciter quelqu’énervement chez PSA, les lumières qui nous ont été fournies cette semaine sur la forme que va prendre "l’alliance stratégique mondiale" GM-PSA font d’abord penser – comme Florence Lagarde l’a souligné déjà la semaine dernière - à Renault-Nissan. Le fait que les deux piliers de la coopération mise en avant soient le partage des plateformes d’un côté et la création d’une structure commune d’achat de l’autre, que la gouvernance de l’Alliance soit assurée par un "steering committee" composé de 4 top managers des deux entreprises, que l’identité des marques soit préservée et gérée hors de l’Alliance tout comme les outils industriels qui continueront d’être dédiés sont autant d’éléments qui rendent comparables les deux manières de procéder.

Cette démarche intermédiaire entre la fusion et la coopération ponctuelle s’explique dans les deux cas par la nécessité politique de respecter l’identité et la "nationalité" des parties d’une part et par la prudence stratégique et organisationnelle que les entreprises ont tiré de leurs expériences passées et de celles qu’ils ont vu d’autres faire d’autre part. read more

Change in the management of subsidiaries due to increasing value competition - as a starting point for a survey on the impact on employment and occupational qualifications†

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Proff, Heike (2012).  Change in the management of subsidiaries due to increasing value competition - as a starting point for a survey on the impact on employment and occupational qualifications†. Gerpisa colloquium.

Currently, automotive companies are increasing their value added in the growth markets of the BRIC countries, despite the risk of losing knowledge, especially in China. Protecting their global market position and handling the major markets, especially the Chinese market, require high levels of foreign investment, not only in production, but also in other value-adding activities such as research and development (R&D). A new form of value chain competition arises.
 
Therefore, global automotive manufacturers’ and suppliers’ management has to adapt to the changing importance of the foreign subsidiaries and now has to coordinate them at least on a regional basis, if perhaps not yet globally.
 
However, up to now, despite the regionalisation in East Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, the value-adding activities of the subsidiaries have been largely confined to single foreign markets. In addition, the interactions between the subsidiaries compared to the exchange relationship between subsidiaries and the parent companies have been low. This has mainly been caused by inter-company transfer pricing and tight, centralized management by the parent companies.
 
Therefore, “integrating a (new) site into the value added network”, as a fourth step in traditional international market management (after 1. Identifying attractive markets and sites, 2. Deciding on the form of internationalisation and 3. Deciding on the form and timing of establishment), has had to be extended by a multi-market management to reduce product substitutability and the scale and scope disadvantages within and between multinational companies (as a first step, to prevent overcapacities) (cf. Proff 2007 and Proff, Proff 2008, based on Bulow et al. 1985). In a second step, the coordination of international value adding activities must be improved in order to further reduce scale and scope disadvantages. Multi-market management thus becomes coordinated multi-market management.
 
Coordinated multi-market management has to increase the exchange between subsidiaries through “strategies covering coordination needs” (cf. Peng, Meyer 2011, pp. 457), which is still low in the automotive industry compared to the exchange relationships between the subsidiaries and the corporate centre or parent company (cf. Fuchs, Apfelthaler 2009, p. 214).
 
Many different “strategies covering coordination needs” are discussed in the literature (cf. overview in Kutschker, Schmid 2011, p. 1035):
 
-        Technocratic coordination strategies that aim to impose routines and standards on operational inputs (e.g. execution of operational processes) and operational outputs (e.g. results) through rules and programmes, plans, budgets, reporting systems and formalisation,
-        People-orientated coordination strategies that are carried out by personal instructions, autonomy, visits, executive transfers, standardisation of roles and culture-orientated coordination and
-        Other “strategies covering coordination needs” such as transfer prices, knowledge transfer and self-organisation.
 
Although many studies examine which coordination strategy is most efficient, and under what contextual factors the use of a specific coordination strategy is particularly efficient, they have not yet succeeded in finding the answers. For this reason, international companies normally use a range of different coordination strategies simultaneously.
 
We used an oral survey as our empirical methodology, in order to identify first indications of future changes in the management of subsidiaries on the basis of increasing international value added competition, and conducted in-depth interviews with experts in the automotive industry using a structured interview guideline. The interviews lasted around one and a half hours on average. This methodology was selected because assessments of future developments, i.e. the strategic perspective of the respondents, were to be recorded. It was therefore impossible to use conventional hypothesis testing and an analysis by multivariate methods.
 
We conducted interviews of 93 industry experts (generally from leading automotive industry associations), well-known academics and top managers (generally managing directors) of subsidiaries of German automotive manufacturers and suppliers in the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China – all in the year 2010 during research trips to all four countries – and in the German parent companies
 
The interviews showed that of the many “strategies covering coordination needs” discussed in the literature, four appear to be particularly important: 1. Regional management with extensive autonomy from the corporate centre and coordination based on value consensus, 2. Institutionalised knowledge transfer with coordination based on differences in know-how, 3. Personnel transfer with hierarchical coordination and 4. The offer of shared support functions, with coordination via transfer prices which exploit tax advantages.
 
The interviews therefore showed that these four “strategies covering coordination needs” appear important to the experts and are in some cases already pursued in the multinational automotive companies, but that they are not yet followed to an adequate extent. In China in particular, the many sites have not been coordinated so far in a Chinese or Asian network, but mostly remain autonomous value-adding units.  With the fast growth in China and the other BRIC markets, coordination needs will increase (cf. Proff 2012 and Bernhard 2011, p. 31), the role of subsidiaries therefore has to be redefined.
This finding gives rise to a need for further research. We therefore propose a subproject
“Changes in the management of subsidiaries of multinational automotive companies within a new international division of labour and changes in the employment relationship”
for the new GERPISA International Research Project in the field: New Demarcations in the Global Automotive Industry - Breakup of the Triad, as proposed by Ludger Pries and Antje Blöcker.
 
For this subproject, we can derive the following assumptions:
  • Due to increasing value adding activities in subsidiaries operating in emerging markets, a change from a previously largely locally orientated management to a regional and even globally orientated management with increasing autonomy and accretive influence on the management of the parent company is probable.
  • Parent companies need skilled workers, because branding, technical development and the production of central components still have to be done within the parent companies.
  • Despite the shift of research and development activities into new growth markets, the Triad will remain a central location for innovation, because Asian manufacturers are investing heavily in the Triad.
 
In this subproject we will examine assumptions relating to the influences on employment and occupational qualifications in the foreign locations as well as at the parent companies in Germany. Therefore, case studies will be conducted with parent companies of German manufacturers and their subsidiaries in the BRIC countries (in collaboration with GERPISA colleagues in France and Italy, possibly with partners in the BRIC countries). The research framework will consists of theories on the role and coordination of subsidiaries in the international management and value adding activities of multinational enterprises.
 
 
 
 
Selected References
 
 
Bernhardt, W. (2011) Die Automobilindustrie im Jahr 2025 – heute die Basis für den Erfolg von
            morgen legen, in: `Zeitschrift für die gesamte Wertschöpfungskette Automobilwirtschaft
            (ZfAW)´, 14. Jg., S 26-33.
Bulow, J. I., Geanakoplos, J. D., Klemperer, P. D. (1985) `Multimarket oligopoly. Strategic substitutes
            and complements´, in: Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 93, pp. 488-511.
Fuchs, M., Apfelthaler, G. (2009): `Management internationaler Geschäftstätigkeit´. 2. Aufl., Wien.
Kutschker, M., Schmid, S. (2011) `Internationales Management´, 7. Ed., Munich..
Peng, M., Meyer, K. (2011): `International Business´. London.
Proff, H. (2007): `Dynamische Strategien: Unterstützung der Erreichung der angestrebten Wettbe
werbsvorteile im internationalen Wettbewerbsprozess´. Wiesbaden.
Proff, H. (2012) `Managing the transition to electric mobility in Chinese automotive subsidiaries of
MNCs´, will be published in: International Journal of Automotive Technology & Management”,
Spcial Issue on China Strategies, 2012.
Proff, H., Proff, H.V. (2008) `Dynamisches Automobilmanagement. Strategien für Hersteller und
Zulieferer im Internationalen Wettbewerb´. 1. Aufl., Wiesbaden.

Thème: Nouvelles divisions internationales du travail et transformations des relations d’emploi
Thème: A new international division of labor and changes in employment relationships

Global quality production—new patterns of transnational division of labor of German automobile suppliers

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Herrigel, Gary, Ulrich Voskamp, & Volker Wittke (2012).  Global quality production—new patterns of transnational division of labor of German automobile suppliers. Gerpisa colloquium. The contribution will focus on changing transnational production systems of German medium sized automotive suppliers. In addition to the traditional strategy to integrate low wage locations into their transnational value chains (the “extended workbench” strategy), a new pattern is on the rise, which we call „global quality production“. This means, German automobile suppliers are upgrading low wage locations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as well as in China in upgrade in competencies and capabilities, enabling them to enter higher value segments of production that up to now were thought to be an exclusive domain of German locations. Based on case evidence the contribution will discuss how the process of upgrading at low wage locations in CEE and China is organized. This includes how German automobile suppliers ensure the local pre-conditions for upgrading strategies, such as a capable local supply base and the supply of a of qualified work force With regard to Germany the contribution will discuss the ambivalent implications of this upgrading in CEE and China and the newly emerging new pattern of transnational division of labor. One hand automobile suppliers German locations may face new impositions, when firms use the new options for another round of cost oriented relocation. But there can be new opportunities as well, because the successful operation of transnational quality production systems also depends on the capabilities of German locations to newly direct their profiles to innovation and coordination tasks in global systems. For industrial production in German locations this structural change reduces the significance of its traditional function, but at the same time amplifies its direction to innovation functions. For works councils new options of codetermination open up in this process, but using them is bound to preconditions: adjusting their competence profiles, redirecting their organization structures, and reorganising their power base in a differently structured workforce.
Thème: Trajectoires et stratégies des équipementiers
Thème: Supplier trajectories and strategies

The perils of obsolescence: The case of Opel

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Kerpen, Daniel (2012).  The perils of obsolescence: The case of Opel. Gerpisa colloquium.

General Motors (GM), the world’s largest automaker in 2011, has been tremendously affected by the 2008-2009 automotive industry crisis: Facing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on June 8, 2009, the GM management and US government officials since then paved the way for a massive company restructuring process (Senter and McManus, 2010). Although being stock market relisted since November 2010 with the largest IPO in US history and reporting an EBIT-adjusted income of $8.3 billion for 2011 calendar-year, the GM recovery process still remains open-ended.

Purpose and approach: The above outlined reorganization is heavily affecting GM’s European branch of automobile production (former GME, defunct since 2010). It’s most important European subsidiary, Adam Opel AG, still remains in the focus of actual trouble-shooting interventions: The question to be addressed in this proposal is the analysis of Opel’s trajectory being affected by GM’s restructuring.

Therefore, first contribution of the presentation will be a comparison of the economic situation of GME in general and Opel in particular in the wake of the 2008-2009 crisis (before/during/after). This will shed a light on the core problems actually still troubling Opel, while competitors like Volkswagen and Renault-Nissan quickly reported recovery of production and sales figures following the latest crisis.

Secondly, I will contribute by analyzing structural problems affecting the future Opel restructuring and the companies’ continuing search for a sustainable strategy and market appearance. Hence, the following analytical dimensions will be of special interest (Boyer and Freyssenet, 2002): 

1) Focussing on markets, preliminary results are by the end of 02/2012: the long criticized restricted market appearance and limited export possibilities for Opel do not allow any or only marginal participation on lucrative export markets like GM’s US home market, as well as the Brazilian and Chinese market; remaining core markets solely are the shrinking or at best stagnating British, German, French, and Southern European markets, whereas in the latter ones sales decline because of the European sovereign debt crisis. GM’s recently announced assistance in Opel’s international marketing and retailing expansion (e.g. in Chevrolet-focussed markets like Russia) has yet to prove its success.

2) Regarding the productive organization, we actually see that Opel’s production sites within the GM Global Manufacturing System (GMS) are limited to Europe, too. Furthermore, plant capacities are not sufficiently utilized (only approx. 75 % against a target utilization of at least 80 %). The co-operation with potential partners like Peugeot, as recently discussed under a new strategic GM-PSA-alliance or partnership, has to be evaluated, e.g. concerning potential benefits in special car segments like B/C-segments; but it remains questionable as a means of diminishing existing overcapacities instead of closing production facilities, a topic currently fuelled by discussions about possible future shutdowns of at least Bochum or Ellesmere Port production site.

3) Observing the company’s product policy, the brand image setback of the 1990s quality problems still troubles Opel today. Although actually being back on track concerning product quality, fuel efficiency, and service, Opel is still affected by budget cuts in R&D in the wake of the GM bankruptcy; which has delayed technological product portfolio revaluations like direct-shift gearboxes or high-compressed downsize ICEs. Finally, the long-awaited and much-applauded range-extended EV Ampera/Volt models have yet to prove their appraisals in advance.

4) Finally, looking at company governance processes, the continuously replacement of top-management positions is tensioning the employees. Furthermore, the employee side persistently clings to concessions in context of an Opel restructuring 2011-2014ff. agreement achieved in fall 2010 (Bloecker, 2011), which is actually already put into question again by GM management. Finally, the newly-elected head of works councils representatives, Schäfer-Klug, has yet to fit in the confident and media-present role which predecessor Franz played while pursuing the finally failed GM-Opel separation.

Conclusion: In sum, these points may not only generally contribute fruitfully to this year’s conference in the selected topic. They may also stimulate discussion in particular with specialized research agendas, for instance researchers interested in future GM trajectories, future prospects of Opel/GM plants, as well as interest in current policies and actions of works councils.

References: 

Bloecker, A., 2011. Chances and failures concerning sustainable location- and job protection: The Case of Opel Bochum [in German]. Presentation prepared for the workshop “Chances and failures concerning sustainable location- and job protection with special reference to OPEL”, promoted by Office of Cooperation RUB/IMU, Hans Boeckler Foundation and Otto Brenner Foundation, Bochum, 24 October 2011. Online available: http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/rub-igm/Transfer/ZWISCHENERGEBNISSE_I.pdf

Boyer, R., Freyssenet, M., 2002. The Productive Models. The Conditions of Profitability, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Senter, R. and McManus, W., 2010. General Motors’ Steps to Recovery. Paper prepared for the 18th Gerpisa International Colloquium, Berlin, 9-11 June 2010. Online available: http://gerpisa.org/en/node/728

Thème: Trajectoires et stratégies des constructeurs
Thème: Manufacturer trajectories and strategies

Making distributed R&D work – Internationalization of Teamwork in R&D-Teams and its formal and informal aspects

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Sauer, Stefan, & Sabine Pfeiffer (2012).  Making distributed R&D work – Internationalization of Teamwork in R&D-Teams and its formal and informal aspects. Gerpisa colloquium. Focusing teamwork in R&D teams this paper deals with new forms of an international division of labor in the automotive sector and its formal and informal consequences. We present theoretical implications and empirical findings from three case studies conducted in the joint research project ‘TRUST-Teamwork in cross-company cooperation’, which is financed by the BMBF and the ESF. In our research we surveyed 44 qualitative, semi-structured interviews in automotive suppliers, with a length of 60-90 minutes each. For quite a long time transformations of the automotive sector depending structuring and restructuring processes in older and new production spaces have been taken place.. In the last years, also the R&D sector is affected from the ongoing processes. Especially (new) habitats in Eastern Europe and China have increasing R&D responsibilities. These habitats are not longer elongated workbenches, but part of globally distributed production and development (Voskamp/Wittke 2012). In our empirical findings we can identify three forms of transnational R&D cooperation: Subsidiaries acting as a support location, as associated partners of implementation, and performing their own projects including technical administration (Schilcher et al. 2011). The new transnational division of innovative work has led to changes in employment relationships, organizational structures, and team relationships depending communication processes and daily work. Engineers in the headquarters are faced with colleagues with lower wages and lower working standard – and vice versa. Furthermore, employees of all habitats experience a lack of transparency concerning management’s strategy. Without clear perspectives in the cooperation, a high level of anxiety concerning employment security and mutual rivalry is increasing. Other challenges are cultural differences (Jameson 2007) like a differing feedback culture, which can lead to misunderstandings and the missing possibility to solve problems in face to face interactions involving the working subject. Due to these reasons, mistrust is increasing in the analyzed R&D- Teams and obviates trust-based teamwork. These experiences show that there are formal and informal aspects which are important for a successful international division of labor (not only) in R&D teams. Not only new employment relationships, also their interpretation, not only the new organizational structures, also their communication and acceptance, not only new team relationships, also their impacts and team-building are very important. And R&D- Teams need solutions for both formal structures and informal cooperation.
Thème: Nouvelles divisions internationales du travail et transformations des relations d’emploi
Thème: A new international division of labor and changes in employment relationships

The three major uncertainties facing the European automotive industry

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Frigant, Vincent (2011).  The three major uncertainties facing the European automotive industry. European Review of Industrial Economics and Policy. 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 -and more broadly throughout this special issue of the ERIEP, for which is serves as an introduction- 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.

Chine 2012 : le début de la consolidation ?

Submitted by Bernard Jullien, GIS-Gerpisa, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan on 13 February, 2012 - 10:49
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La chronique hébdomadaire de Bernard Jullien directeur du Gerpisa.

Alors que se déchaîne en France le débat sur les délocalisations, les nouvelles venues de Chine n’ont pas reçu l’attention qu’elles auraient méritée. Ont été publiées en particulier les immatriculations de janvier 2012 : elles sont en baisse de 24% par rapport à celles de janvier 2011et, même si le nombre de jours ouvrables y était pour quelque chose, ce chiffre, qui intervient après une année 2011 qui avait vu les ventes de véhicules ne croître que de 2,5%, fait douter ceux qui espéraient encore que 2012 soit une année de stagnation des ventes.

A été annoncée également par Chine Nouvelle l’ouverture d’un parc fournisseurs à Pékin dont le coût global serait de 4,9 milliards de yuans (592 millions d'euros). Destiné à accueillir des investissements étrangers ou de coentreprises, il correspondrait d'ores et déjà à 19 projets dont l’un est celui de la coentreprise de Daimler AG en Chine, Beijing Benz Automotive Co., qui produira sur ce site des pièces détachées destinées aux Mercedes de Classe C et E assemblées à Pékin. Dans la mesure où le lancement de cet investissement coïncide avec la confirmation par les autorités de la suppression des avantages que l’on consentait jusqu’ici aux investisseurs étrangers qui, pour construire de nouvelles capacités, importaient des équipements lourds, on peine à y voir clair. read more

From Joint Ventures to National Champions or Global Players? Alliances and Technological Catching-up in Chinese and Indian Automotive Industries

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Balcet, Giovanni, & Joël Ruet (2011).  From Joint Ventures to National Champions or Global Players? Alliances and Technological Catching-up in Chinese and Indian Automotive Industries. European Review of Industrial Economics and Policy. The internationalisation of the automotive industry in China and India sheds light on the economic processes of emergence at large. The modes of endogenisation of technology have shifted from an all-over joint venture route towards the direct emergence of provincial players into the global scene and new forms of alliances. This evolution in the car industry serves as an analyser of the relationships between industrial policies, industrial partnerships and paths of technological catching-up that are at the core of the phenomenon of emergence. Chinese and Indian car companies are not only internationalising by selling abroad; they are internationalising by producing abroad and even, for some of them, globalising their production process through rethinking their whole supply chain, entering new value chains, or grasping global opportunities. This paper, based on interviews, examines different stylised business models for Chinese and Indian car companies, to ultimately question the theory of emerging market multinationals and of joint ventures. It does so by examining the following points: - the trajectories of Chinese and Indian carmakers, viz. their property status and relationship to the State (private vs. State owned; province of localisation) in a context of consolidating national champions; - modes of technological catching-up and innovation processes; - market mix strategies between a geographically fragmented (in China) or concentrated (in India) domestic market and a growing export performance combined with an early multinational production. The paper concludes on the different trajectories and on perspectives for joint ventures. We notably raise the hypothesis that joint ventures classically based on an exchange of technology for market access have exhausted their scope, and might now have to be based on an exchange of domestic market for international market, or are evolving towards different forms of governance.

The three major uncertainties facing the European automotive industry

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Frigant, Vincent (2011).  The three major uncertainties facing the European automotive industry. European Review of Industrial Economics and Policy. 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 -and more broadly throughout this special issue of the ERIEP, for which is serves as an introduction- 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.

Au Brésil : une industrie automobile sous contrôle

Submitted by Bernard Jullien, GIS-Gerpisa, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan on 16 January, 2012 - 13:50
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La chronique hébdomadaire de Bernard Jullien directeur du Gerpisa.

Le Brésil a enregistré en 2011 des ventes de VP de plus de 3,4 millions d’unités (2,9% de mieux qu’en 2010) ainsi que des ventes de camions et de bus de 207 400 unités (en augmentation de 11,3%). Bien que le marché automobile ait marqué le pas en fin d’année, ceci permet au Brésil de disputer à l’Allemagne la place de 4ème marché mondial et à Fenabrave de prévoir pour 2012 une nouvelle augmentation de 4,5% pour les VP et de 9,6% pour les VI.

Convoité par la quasi-totalité des constructeurs mondiaux suivis par l’industrie équipementière, le Brésil ne cède cependant pas à l’euphorie. Ainsi, si les concessionnaires de la Fenabrave ne s’en émeuvent pas, les autorités ont vécu avec inquiétude le fait que les ventes de véhicules fabriqués au Brésil aient quant à elles baissé de 2,8% alors que celles de véhicules importés croissaient de 30% et atteignaient 858 000 unités. Ceci correspond à un déclin relatif à la fois de la part des"bi-carburations" qui passent de 86,4% à 83,1% et de celle des "carros populares" équipés de moteurs de 1 l qui passent de 50,8% à 45,2% alors qu’elles représentaient 71% des immatriculations en 2001. Dans la mesure où les exportations croissaient quant à elles de 7,7% pour atteindre 541 500 unités, ceci se traduit par une production d’automobiles au Brésil qui a stagné à 3,4 millions et suffit à déclencher les réactions du gouvernement. read more

La vraie fausse surprise du revirement de la politique chinoise face aux investissements directs étrangers dans l’automobile

Submitted by Bernard Jullien, GIS-Gerpisa, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan on 3 January, 2012 - 14:24
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La chronique hébdomadaire de Bernard Jullien directeur du Gerpisa.

Alors que paraissent les chiffres des immatriculations françaises en décembre et que s’annonce une année 2012 durant laquelle la stagnation des ventes en Europe ressort presque comme un scénario optimiste, l’étoile chinoise ternit quelque peu. En effet, en pleine trêve des confiseurs, la Commission du Développement et de la Réforme Nationale a annoncé que dorénavant il ne s’agissait plus de favoriser l’investissement direct étranger dans l’automobile chinoise mais de le freiner. En conséquence, le Ministère du Commerce change les dispositions applicables et, comme l’explique à l’AFP John Zeng, directeur des prévisions au cabinet de recherches LMC Automotive : "Ces dernières années, une joint venture (coentreprise) en Chine bénéficiait de droits de douane réduits sur les importations d'équipements neufs, mais avec cette nouvelle mesure ce genre d'avantages va disparaître et les coûts d'investissement vont augmenter. L'accès de nouveaux arrivants étrangers pourrait être restreint". read more

Le très suggestif "stress test" chinois de Moody’s

Submitted by Bernard Jullien, GIS-Gerpisa, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan on 28 November, 2011 - 13:49
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La chronique hébdomadaire de Bernard Jullien directeur du Gerpisa.

Alors qu’allait commencer le 9ème salon international de l’Automobile à Guanzhou, avait lieu le 20 novembre à Shenzhen en Chine la cérémonie d’inauguration de la coentreprise “Changan PSA Automobiles” (CAPSA) qui va en particulier produire et commercialiser la gamme DS de Citroën en Chine. Quelques jours plus tard la presse d’affaires relatait que, dans une très récente étude sectorielle sur l’automobile, l'agence Moody's évoque explicitement un "risque chinois" en ces termes :
"Si les constructeurs et équipementiers automobiles présents en Chine devraient pouvoir encore bénéficier d'un important potentiel de croissance à long terme, les investisseurs ne doivent pas pour autant ignorer les répercussions qu'aurait éventuellement sur ces derniers une contraction sensible des ventes dans ce pays". read more

GM : un numéro 1 fragile pour une industrie mondiale à la croisée des chemins

Submitted by Bernard Jullien, GIS-Gerpisa, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan on 14 November, 2011 - 15:07
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La chronique hébdomadaire de Bernard Jullien directeur du Gerpisa.

La publication des résultats de GM au troisième trimestre 2011 a, de manière très significative, donné lieu à des commentaires et des titres très contrastés. En effet, d’un côté, GM redevient clairement le numéro 1 mondial avec 6,79 millions de véhicules sur les 9 premiers mois et Toyota qui avait pris la tête en 2008 rend aujourd’hui à GM plus d’un million de véhicule alors que VW est à 6,11. D’un autre côté, par rapport à 2010, les profits de GM sont en retrait de 12%.

Comme le souligne le Wall Street Journal, il est frappant de constater que GM est en 2011 dans une position symétrique de celle que l’on s’était habitué à constater du temps de "l’ancien GM" : les profits se font aux Etats-Unis et, accessoirement, en Chine; les opérations internationales sont plus problématiques et ce n’est plus seulement l’Europe qui tire les résultats vers le bas, l’Amérique du Sud, la Russie et l’Inde sont également problématiques. Les problèmes de change sont à l’origine d’une partie des problèmes mais c’est aussi l’orientation de beaucoup de ces marchés vers des véhicules modernes et moins chers qui causent les pertes de GM. read more

Industrie automobile. La croisée des chemins

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Jullien, Bernard, & Yannick Lung (2011).  Industrie automobile. La croisée des chemins. Etudes. L’industrie automobile a profondément structuré nos sociétés au XXe siècle : ses procédés de fabrication, ainsi que ses rapports sociaux, se sont étendus à l’ensemble de l’industrie, cependant que la généralisation de la possession de voitures individuelles structurait autour d’elle les espaces urbains. Cette prédominance a été contestée dans les années 1970, avec la critique de la société de consommation et la mise au jour des problèmes de sécurité et de pollution engendrés par la circulation. Plus tard, l’explosion de la demande, puis de la production, dans les pays émergents va poser de façon plus aiguë les questions de la limitation des ressources fossiles et des conséquences climatiques du tout-voiture. La crise de 2008 a accentué la prise de conscience de la nécessité de réviser au niveau mondial les procédés de fabrication et les usages de l’automobile. Confrontée à de nouveaux défis, l’industrie (notamment française – Renault et PSA) a commencé à explorer des pistes : production dans les pays émergents de véhicules très bon marché également vendables dans les pays développés, délocalisation des activités de conception, perspectives prometteuses de la voiture électrique dès lors que s’ouvrent de vastes marchés... L’industrie automobile semble être au seuil d’une révolution.
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Le pouvoir automobile de la Chine

Submitted by Bernard Jullien, GIS-Gerpisa, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan on 19 September, 2011 - 10:44
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La chronique hébdomadaire de Bernard Jullien directeur du Gerpisa.

Il y a quelques mois le Financial Times publiait en pleine page un reportage sur les mœurs automobiles chinoises qui défendait la thèse selon laquelle les préférences chinoises exercent une influence croissante sur les politiques produits des grands constructeurs mondiaux. Les exemples choisis concernaient essentiellement les marques Premium allemandes pour lesquelles les volumes désormais vendus en Chine et les profits qu’ils représentent pour Daimler ou BMW sont tels que cet "effet Chine" est particulièrement prégnant. Les Classe S de Mercedes en particulier sont vendues majoritairement en Chine et y échouer avec ce produit changerait dès lors radicalement la capacité de Daimler de rester dans la course qui l’oppose à ses challengers sur ces segments. Il en résulte, racontait le Financial Times, une attention au confort et aux prestations disponibles aux places arrières notoirement accrue et ce sont petit à petit ces exigences propres au marché chinois qui très en amont donneront aux produits leurs contours. read more

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