Geographical distribution of product development capabilities in the automobile industry: towards a hierarchical division of labour in Mercosur

In the last decade, some carmakers with operations in Mercosur delegated a growing number of product development responsibilities to their subsidiaries operating in Argentina and Brazil. As a result, these subsidiaries were able to accumulate capabilities that allowed them to introduce innovations o...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Obaya, Martín
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/35393
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/35393
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Automotive Industry
Innovation Management
Product Development
Mercosur
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5.2
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/5
Descripción
Sumario:In the last decade, some carmakers with operations in Mercosur delegated a growing number of product development responsibilities to their subsidiaries operating in Argentina and Brazil. As a result, these subsidiaries were able to accumulate capabilities that allowed them to introduce innovations of increasing complexity into the vehicles manufactured in the region. Empirical evidence suggests that, beyond the differences observed in the strategies adopted by carmakers in Mercosur, the most intense capability accumulation experiences were largely concentrated in subsidiaries located in the Brazilian territory. As a result, a hierarchical division of labour has progressively taken shape within Mercosur favouring the subsidiaries located in this country, at the expense of their Argentinian counterparts. Through the examination of three companies, this article aims to analyse the process of accumulation of product development capabilities in subsidiaries operating in Argentina and Brazil between 1991 and 2011.