Designing and managing collaborative enterprises in the automotive industry

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a recently completed research project. It sheds light upon the appropriate governance of inter-firm relationships, in order to achieve competitive success for the whole partnership and its individual members. An exploratory study in the German automotive industry using inductive Grounded Theory was conducted, in order to form a set of propositions that were then validated. The research has resulted in the consolidation of these propositions into a novel concept termed Collaborative Enterprise Governance, which draws on an inter-disciplinary body of knowledge. The core of the concept is a competence based contingency framework that helps enterprise managers in selecting the most appropriate governance strategy (i.e. enterprise structure) for an inter-firm relationships within automotive supply networks (i.e. enterprises), depending on various exogenous and endogenous factors.

Keywords:

• Supply networks
• Collaborative governance
• Automotive industry
• Managing enterprises
• Core competence
• Contingency planning

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all the companies and interviewees from the German automotive industry who contributed to this study. For reasons of confidentiality, the companies and interviewees remain anonymous.