Business Strategies of Incumbents in the Market for Electric Vehicles: Opportunities and Incentives for Sustainable Innovation

This paper focuses on the relation between large car manufacturers’ incentive and opportunity to innovate and their electric vehicle (EV) business strategies. We analyze how environmental regulation and the firm's incentive (measured by net income) and opportunity to innovate (measured by EV asset position, determined from a combination of patent, partnership and prototype data) affected EV sales over the period 1990–2011. During the EV's R&D period in the 1990s, large car manufacturers that were regulated by the full zero emission vehicle mandate developed a significantly stronger EV asset position, but did not sell significantly more EVs than their rivals. During the EV's commercialization period (2007–2011), large car manufacturers with both a strong incentive and a strong opportunity to innovate sold significantly more EVs. Based on these results, the paper offers a typology of business strategies, several managerial implications, and recommendations for policy makers to stimulate sustainable development. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Price promotions as a threat to brands

Manufacturers frequently resist heavy discounting of their products by retailers. Since low prices should increase demand and manufacturers could simply refuse to fund deep price promotions, such resistance is puzzling at first sight. We develop a model in which price promotions cause shoppers to evaluate the relative importance of quality and price against a market-wide reference point. With deep discounting, consumers perceive quality differences as less pronounced, eroding brand value and the bargaining position of brand manufacturers. This reduces their profits and may even lead to a delisting of their products. By linking price promotions to increased one-stop shopping and more intense retail competition, our theory also offers an explanation for the rise of store brands.     

Optimal joint trade-in rebate strategies in a retailer-led supply chain

This study investigates the joint trade-in rebate strategies in a supply chain with independent manufacturers selling substitutable products via a dominant retailer. We model their interplay as a Stackelberg game and analyze their joint trade-in rebate decisions. We find that the differentiated trade-in rebate scheme is better for the retailer, and the manufacturers cooperating in making their trade-in rebate decisions can achieve win-win results in most cases. However, replacement consumers could benefit from the retailer's uniform trade-in rebate scheme and the manufacturers not cooperating in their trade-in decisions. The latter is always more beneficial to the environment.     

基于生态位理论的轿车生产企业竞争态势分析

本文运用生态位理论,将消费者视为企业生存所倚重的资源,利用价格生态位分析了主要轿车生产企业之间的竞争态势,力求为我国轿车生产企业的经营者利用生态位理论认识、分析轿车市场的竞争状况,制定竞争战略提供理论支持。而且,随着汽车生产企业和其产品的增多,消费者购买能力和需求的增高,以及能源危机引发的机遇与挑战,全球汽车制造业将会面临着越来越激烈的市场竞争。在这个阶段,汽车生产企业如果能够尝试从生态位的视角出发,观察整个市场的竞争态势,认清自己所处的位置,明确竞争对手的情况,进而调整到适合自身生存的价格生态位,那么就有望实现企业在适度的竞争关系中和谐共生并健康持续地发展。     

Risky products in movies: a special type of the embedded message requiring special treatment?

• The appearance of risky products such as alcohol, tobacco and firearms, as well as their brand imagery, in movies can be supported by product manufacturers. This article discusses the argument for a disclosure advising consumers about the persuasive intent behind the appearance of some risky products in movies, drawing upon the ethical implications of product placement. Such a disclosure would protect consumers against the impact of promotional messages and allow moviemakers to separate their artistic activities from promotion of risky products.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spatial patterns of Japanese investment in the US automobile industry

Here the author examines the locational strategy of Japanese car manufacturers and their component part suppliers in the US at both the regional and local scale. This is compared briefly with the strategy pursued by Japanese investors in the UK auto industry     

Selling Mobility instead of Cars: New Business Strategies of Automakers and the Impact on Private Vehicle Holding

This article considers the business strategy of an automaker entering the car‐sharing market. Given the high growth of the car‐sharing industry, this could become a new business segment and simultaneously have effects on branding. The considered case is a car‐sharing system called car2go, which was launched by Daimler in 2009. An empirical analysis based on primary data (N = 1881) indicates that private vehicles are reduced as a consumer reaction. This constitutes a potential for environmental gains, as shared and consecutively used cars require less of production resources compared to a higher number of private cars being bought, driven and parked individually. Implications for public policy are that the allocation of public space to car‐sharing systems could result in a net gain of space in cities. Policy makers should also consider the dependency of car‐sharing schemes on municipal support regarding parking spaces and they should anticipate the upcoming electrification. This is the first study on a large‐scale car‐sharing system operated by an automaker using retrospective primary data. It contributes to the assessment of the current trend of car manufacturers launching car‐sharing schemes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Identifying environmentally important supply chain clusters in the automobile industry

In this paper, we develop a new approach that combines the spectral clustering method and input–output analysis to detect environmentally important supply chain clusters. The newly developed method was applied to automobile manufacturing in Japan, and major clusters with high energy intensities in the automobile supply chain were identified. This paper proposes that the car manufacturers will be able to regularly publish their life-cycle assessment reports with a focus on the indirect energy consumptions within the critical supply chains and request key auto-part manufacturers in the cluster to reduce the indirect consumptions through the relevant supply chain engagement.     

废旧电子类产品回收的网络协作模型

模型主要研究多个生产商分别建好其逆向物流网络后,在废旧产品回收过程中的横向协作问题。分别建立线性规划模型,讨论了生产商只通过自己的设施回收(无协作)以及通过共用设施回收(协作)时的运营成本。模型的解表明,在协作时各生产商的运营成本均小于不协作时,即达到了多赢的局面。     

Bailing on the Car That Was Not Bailed Out: Bounding Consumer Reactions to Financial Distress

We examine how consumers react to the financial distress of durable goods manufacturers by studying the Swedish new car market. We employ a difference‐in‐differences matching methodology whereby we compare sales of carmaker Saab with those of a control group of substitute products. To account for possible substitution between products in the treatment and control groups, we propose and apply bounds to our difference‐in‐differences matching estimator. We then refine the bounds and provide conditions under which they depend only on product elasticities. We find that there was a significant decrease in the sales of Saab following its filing for administration.     

Overcoming the Negative Product Quality Image of Manufacturers in Emerging Economies

Abstract

Companies from emerging economies often suffer from perceptions of negative quality for their products. This study investigates, using an experimental design, how manufacturers in emerging countries can make use of warranty strategies to overcome their negative product quality image. Contrary to what is proposed in the warranty literature, our study shows that the use of better warranties for products designed and manufactured by firms in the emerging countries does not improve their product quality image. This is because of the “too good to be true” suspicion by consumers. Strategic alliances with firms in developed countries to produce hybrid products also may not be effective in overcoming the poor quality image for firms in emerging countries. A comprehensive warranty package such as providing full repair and replacement of parts is also effective in altering consumers' trepidation of hybrid products originating from countries of low repute. Implications for strategic alliances between firms in the developed and emerging economies are discussed.     

European response to issues in recycling car plastics

This paper discusses the issue of recycling of plastics in the automobile industry which has gained importance due to the proposed European Commission regulation on End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) where the EC sets targets on the percent recyclablity or reusability of a car by the year 2015. This proposed regulation puts pressure on the car manufacturers to increase the recyclable and/or reusable components of their product. Plastic poses a critical challenge as on one hand it is necessary to meet the customer demands related to esthetics, light weight and the technological advantages, while on the other hand it is a hurdle in achieving a higher percent recyclability of the ELVs.A closer look on this issue from Europe is necessary as it is expected to set the trend in car recycling regulations all over the world. However, there are many related economic issues that have to be kept in mind while thinking of recycling of plastics (or other components) from ELVs. Tough regulations may not have the solution to the environmental question as the issue has ramifications outside the automotive industry and outside Europe.The significance of plastics in the automotive industry, the proposed ELV directive from the EC and the economic effects of the same, along with the future concerns is discussed here. Further, the paper takes a brief look at the environment in the Indian sub-continent which is considered an emerging market and is flooded with car manufacturers from all over the world, and where issues like recycling are still to attract the attention of the government and the local population.     

Consumers' processing of mindful commercial car sharing

Commercial car sharing offers a form of market‐mediated, access‐based consumption with a markedly lower impact on the natural environment than that of car ownership. Consumers adopting such alternative transportation modes are manifesting a marketplace behavior that can be said to be mindful because of the innovative and sustainable nature of car sharing. This study employs behavioral reasoning theory to examine how consumers' value orientations, as well as reasons for and against car sharing, might be used in consumers' processing of mindful commercial car‐sharing adoption. Findings suggest that subjective norms (thoughts of important others for consumers, such as co‐workers) serve an important mediating role for both consumers' value orientations and reasons for car sharing in their relationship with car‐sharing behavior. These results provide marketing researchers important knowledge about green consumption and suggest that practitioners would do well to emphasize the social dimension when marketing environmentally oriented services, such as car sharing.     

Direct Marketing in Oligopoly

We consider a game in which symmetric manufacturers decide whether to set up sites (e.g., web sites) where consumers can buy their products directly. Following this decision, the manufacturers choose quantities to sell to the retailers, and then the manufacturers with direct‐sales sites and retailers choose quantities to sell to the consumers. We show that since an increase in the number of retailers may drive the direct‐selling manufacturers from the retail market, it may raise the retailers’ profit and reduce social welfare. Finally, we discuss two cases: an oligopolistic wholesale market and a market with price competition and differentiated products.     

中小汽车企业经销商电子商务管理系统的设计

本文研究的对象是基于中小汽车企业的经销商电子商务管理系统。针对中小型汽车制造企业现有的销售中存在的诸多问题,经过反复的调研实践,通过切实合理的销售流程分析,为中小型汽车制造企业的经销商设计并开发了经销商管理系统。该系统主要完善并改进了汽车销售中的内部管理,旨在提高销售过程中的经销商内部业务管理水平的能力,在中小型汽车制造企业和经销商之间构建一个有效的共同渠道,打破了企业与经销商之间信息交互的屏障,提高企业的效率,促进销售的增长,增强中小汽车企业的市场竞争能力。     

Refusals to Deal, Price Discrimination, and Independent Service Organizations

A number of recent Canadian and U.S. antitrust cases have involved allegations that manufacturers of durable products have refused to supply parts to independent service organizations, apparently to monopolize the market for repairs of their products. This paper provides a theory of these strategies and considers the welfare implications of judicial orders to supply. The refusals here are seen as necessary to protect manufacturers' program of price discrimination: Expensive repairs represent a way to select high-intensity, high-value users and charge them more. In addition to the usual ambiguity associated with the welfare effects of prohibitions of price discrimination, forcing competition in repairs can have the further damaging effect of reducing social welfare by inducing manufacturers to lower product quality.     

Specialty products: the next challenge for alliances

As group purchasing matures, alliances and GPOs will need to expand their contract portfolio to include specialty products. As groups and manufacturers negotiate successful specialty products agreements and hospitals actively support those contracts, the industry as a whole stands to benefit. If alliance and manufacturers do not attempt to negotiate specialty products agreements that bring value to both parties, hospitals will miss out on savings, and suppliers will lose market share opportunities.     

基于AHP的汽车制造企业逆向物流合作伙伴选择与评价研究

报废汽车回收问题近年来逐渐成为我国学者关注的焦点,汽车制造企业逆向物流合作伙伴的选择便成为其逆向物流业务成功与否的决定因素。文中构建了报废汽车逆向物流合作伙伴评价指标体系,利用AHP的方法,对报废汽车逆向物流合作伙伴进行评价与优选,并结合案例进行实证分析。     

The Integration of Quality,Environmental and Health and Safety Management by Car Manufacturers – a Long‐Term Empirical Study

The diversity of stakeholder requirements is currently a pivotal challenge for companies. Stakeholders expect companies to increasingly consider environmental and social aspects in their decisions. Thus, corporate goal systems are including not only qualitative and financial goals, but also environmental and social ones. Management systems for ensuring quality, environmental and occupational safety play an important role in achieving these objectives. Considering the interdependency between the different systems constitutes a central challenge. Much of the literature and the results from empirical studies suggest that the spatial application of integrated management systems is state of the art. Integrated management systems in particular are regarded as more effective and more efficient than separate and distinct management systems. However, the present long‐term study demonstrates that for car manufacturers in Germany these integration efforts are implemented in very different ways, and that some integration approaches are partially abandoned after a period of unsatisfactory implementation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY: The Case of Nigerian Manufacturing A Framework for Policy Study*

This paper reviews the Nigerian situation regarding the private provision of infrastructure services by manufacturers with a focus on electrical power generation. While private provision occurs also in water supply, intraurban freight and worker transport, telecommunications, and waste disposal, the degree of its occurence in electrical power generation, a relatively expensive manufacturing input, has the largest economic implications for the firms and the country. The policy framework developed in this paper, however, is applicable to these other subsectors. Manufacturing firms' private provision responses are identified, analyzed, and grouped into seven regimes, four of which are currently observed to occur, and three are precluded from occuring due to existing regulations. A model of public infrastructure supply that is pertinent for developing countries is proposed and discussed. Policy options which could improve the current situation are also examined and discussed. It is argued that the most promising options are likely to be those which encourage new modes of cooperative private provision among manufacturers, accompanied by deregulation, privatization, contestability, modern pricing, and selective maintenance in the public agencies.