Innovation in the Indian automotive industry: the role of academic and public research institutions

Abstract

This study investigates the nature of collaboration between industry and academia in the Indian automotive sector through detailed case studies of three original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), two component manufacturers and three academic research groups, all actively involved in innovation.

The level and nature of collaboration between academic research and industry in the Indian automotive sector can be explained by the nature of the technology, the locus of technical decision making in this sector, the maturity level of Indian companies, and the maturity of academic research itself. The study finds that the most prevalent form of collaboration between companies and academia is competency development and training while the second most prevalent form is the provision of research services (testing and analytical services). Research partnerships between industry and academia are uncommon. In such a context, government support for research partnerships can bring industry and academia closer together, and create a stage for future collaboration, but commercialization of technology is unlikely.

Keywords:

• innovation
• open innovation
• industry–university collaboration
• automotive industry

Acknowledgements

We thank the participants in the workshop held at GRIPS, Tokyo, Japan on 26–27 January 2011 for their useful comments and feedback that have enhanced the quality of this paper. Shivani Gopalkrishna helped with the secondary research for this paper.

Notes

Source: http://www.siamindia.com.

This section is drawn from http://www.tubeproductsindia.com/Tube_Introduction.html. The website was last accessed on January 19, 2011.

This section is based on information available at http://www.rane.co.in/groupprofile.htm. This site was last accessed on January 19, 2011.

This case has been written based on information in the public domain (primarily from the company's annual reports) and an interview with Dr Aravind Bharadwaj, CEO, Automotive Informatics (a joint venture of Ashok Leyland). Dr Bharadwaj was earlier the head of the Advanced Engineering Group at Ashok Leyland.

Based on http://www.ashokleyland.com/history.jsp?name=history, accessed on January 16, 2011.

This section is based on information available in Khanna, Lal, and Manocaran (2005) and publicly available information such as M&M annual reports.

This section is based on an interview with Dr Mathew of M&M on January 22, 2011.

This case has been written based on publicly available information, and on information obtained from the CAR Programme. This case has also drawn on Vallabhaneni and Krishnan (2009).

This case looks at both the NFSSF and the research group with which one of the key members of the NFSSF, Professor Dutta, is associated.

Based on an interview with Professor Pradip Dutta, December 24, 2010.

The information in this section is based on http://www.me.iitb.ac.in/~shashisn/. This site was last accessed on January 19, 2011.

This section is based on an interview with Professor Shashikanth Suryanarayanan on January 13, 2011.

Based on information downloaded on January 16, 2011 from http://www.cpdm.iisc.ernet.in/about.php.

Based on an interview with Professor B. Gurumoorthy, CPDM, IISc, Bangalore, on January 13, 2011.