Title: The development of e-business in the Chinese automotive industry

Authors: MeiYi Winnie Song; Kulwant S. Pawar; Peter M. Standring

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Shih-Chien University, No. 70 Dazhi St., Zhongshan District, 104 Taiwan ' Nottingham University Business School, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK ' The Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

Abstract: The paper describes how electronic business (EB) activities in the Chinese automotive sector have developed to match its position as being 'a pillar of industry'. The uniqueness of this paper is that it provides a detailed evidence based study on the extent of EB practices adopted within the Chinese automotive industry. The choices of technical and commercial software are shown to be different for Sino-foreign joint ventures (JVs) than for some domestic, independent/domestic vehicle manufacturers. To gain a share of the rapidly burgeoning automotive market in China and to expedite matters, it is proposed that EB developments have been simplified by the widespread adoption of global systems used by global JV partners. As the worlds leading vehicle producer and market, the paper suggests that China may soon be in a position to develop its own EB systems which, if it did, could challenge the rest of the world.

Keywords: China; automotive manufacturing; automobile industry; e-business; five year plans; internet connections; IT architecture; electronic business; technical software; commercial software; joint ventures; domestic vehicle manufacturers; information technology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2012.051289

International Journal of Enterprise Network Management, 2012 Vol.5 No.3, pp.219 - 238

Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article