Network position, export patterns and competitiveness: evidence from the European automotive industry (Published on Competition and Change, vol 21(2): 132-158) Manuel Gracia
[email protected] Mª José Paz
[email protected] Abstract The organizational characteristics of production in the European automotive industry have favoured a high degree of fragmentation and productive mobility. This article analyses the differing national positions of automotive producing countries and their export patterns – particularly their export reorientation to extra-European Union (EU) markets following the collapse of regional demand in the European automotive industry. Based on the methodologies of Mahutga and Piana our position analysis arrives at two main conclusions: i) the countries best positioned in the European regional automotive production network are precisely those that have experienced a greater increase in extra- EU exports, thus reducing their dependence on regional European demand; ii) the increase in extra-EU exports (mainly of final goods) is linked to increased regional fragmentation of production in the automotive industry. We conclude that the governance of this fragmentation process is a key determinant of extra-EU export competitiveness. Keywords: production network; automotive industry; export pattern; Europe; internationalization of production JEL: L62, F15 1 Introduction Various studies have analysed the automotive industry and its high production fragmentation which is organized around increasingly globalized regional production areas such as the European Union (Dicken, 2003; Domanski and Lung, 2009; Frigant, and Layan, 2009; Jürgens and Krzywdzinsky, 2009; Frigant and Zumpe, 2014). Following this production fragmentation process the underlying global production network governance structures of leading companies in the industry (which determine what, where, and how goods will be produced) have created differentiated national producer country positions within these networks (Gereffi and Korzeniewics, 1994; Hess, 2008, Gibbon et al.