Title: Measurement of R&D capabilities in Chinese self-brand automotive firms

Authors: Xianjun Li, Nanxiang Xie

Addresses: Department of Automotive Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 China. ' Department of Automotive Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 China

Abstract: R&D capabilities has been widely recognised and widely studied. Little research has been done on measurement of R&D capabilities although there are lots of other related literatures about R&D measurement. This paper aims at constructing an assessing model of R&D capabilities, according to which, we measure R&D capabilities of Chinese self-brand automotive firms. The empirical result shows that there is non-equilibrium and large gap on R&D capabilities among Chinese self-brand automotive enterprises. The R&D capabilities of traditional big automotive firms are weaker than that of the latecomers in China. Also, there is a large gap of R&D capabilities between Chinese self-brand automotive enterprises and foreign transnational ones who are stronger. The emerging automotive firms such as Geely, Chery and BYD represent the direction of progress in China.

Keywords: empirical analysis; R&D capability; R&D system modelling; China; automobile industry; research and development; automotive R&D; R&D assessment; self-brand automotive enterprises.

DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2010.035649

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2010 Vol.10 No.4, pp.414 - 429

Published online: 01 Oct 2010 *

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