A Profile of the Global Auto Industry: Innovation and Dynamics - Paperback

by Mike Smitka (Author), Peter Warrian (Author)

This is the first book on the global auto industry viewed through the lens of technology. It starts by tracing how innovation shaped the first century of its history, then it examines the industry's shifting footprint in Europe and North America, and the rise of new producers, particularly China. Succeeding chapters emphasize the role of suppliers in what is now a high-tech industry. This book describes new forms of collaboration that challenge traditional supply chain relations, analyzing regulation as a driver of innovation, and the enabling role of the materials science revolution, such as the shift of steel from a commodity to a highly engineered product. It covers innovations in management, from computer-aided engineering, roadmapping, and just-in-time methods to the evolving role of workers and public policy. The authors finish with an overview of electric vehicles, shared mobility, and autonomous vehicles, concluding that they will not prove disruptive.

Author Biography

Mike Smitka is professor of economics at Washington and Lee University, an undergraduate liberal arts college in Virginia. He has a BA in East Asian studies from Harvard and a PhD in economics from Yale University. Fluent in Japanese, he has spent a total of seven years in Tokyo, with shorter stays in China, Germany, and Korea. Since 1994, he has been a judge for the Automotive News PACE supplier awards. He is in the steering committee of GERPISA, an international network of academics who work in the auto industry.