Title: Automotive industry and blurring systemic borders: the role of regional policy measures

Authors: Bart Kamp, Reha Tozun

Addresses: INNOVA Europe, Kunstlaan 24, 1000 Brussels, Belgium; Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam School of Management, Center for Entrepreneurship, P.O. Box 1738, Room T11-53, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Universite Catholique Louvain-la-Neuve, Louvain School of Management, Centre des PMEs, 1, Place de l'Universite, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. ' Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation, Friedrichstrasse 10 70174, Stuttgart, Germany

Abstract: The management of cognitive, organisational and geographical interfaces is a major competitiveness challenge for the automotive industry. Market and network imperfections, like underinvestment in innovation, or finance and labour market suboptimalities, are notorious obstacles in this regard. It is argued that the capacity of regional policies to help the industry overcome such failures will be critical for automotive localities to ride the wave of ongoing integration of IT components and functions into automotive conjoints. This paper focuses on the policy actions that can be undertaken at regional level in dealing with blurring sectoral and technological borders to the automotive industry. After developing a conceptual framework for analysis, two empirical cases are reviewed. The primary research results stress the relevance of regional policy action in supporting automotive complexes to overcome market and network failures in order to marry IT and automotive realms more productively.

Keywords: R&D policy; innovation policy; research and development; regional economies; automotive technology; automotive management; automobile industry; market failures; network failures; regional policy; information technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2010.032625

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.10 No.2/3, pp.213 - 235

Published online: 09 Apr 2010 *

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