Emerging Auto Industries in a World of Global Value Chains: Actors, Policies and Structural Issues

by Lorenza Monaco (Editor), Martin Schröder (Editor)

Overview

This book provides a global picture of automotive industry development in emerging countries through the lens of global value chain analysis. Over the past two decades, auto production increasingly shifted to emerging economies, marking a significant reconfiguration of the global auto industry. This volume traces such shift to illustrate industrial development dynamics, focusing on new global players, their industrial strategies and on the structural characteristics of these emerging markets. It features chapters devoted to the theoretical analysis of industrial development in emerging countries, and collects a wide range of country cases illustrating different trajectories of auto industrialisation. These include better-known cases of dominant players as well as still underexplored cases such as Argentina, Hungary, Poland, Morocco, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam. This book will provide valuable reading to those researching globalization and emerging countries, their comparative industrialisation, and the intersection of government policies and business strategy, specifically concerning the automotive industry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031764097
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	12/11/2025
Series:	Palgrave Studies of Internationalization in Emerging Markets
Edition description:	2025
Pages:	335
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Lorenza Monaco (Phd SOAS, London) is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London, a Senior Research Associate at SarchI Industrial Development, University of Johannesburg, and part of GERPISA. She works on the political economy of industrial development in emerging economies, with a special focus on the automotive industry.

Martin Schröder is Associate Professor at the College of Policy Science, Ritsumeikan University, Japan, and Visiting Researcher at the Research Institute of Automobile and Parts Industries, Waseda University, Japan. His research interests are regional economic integration in ASEAN, the political economy of the automotive industry, and digitalisation in the automotive industry.

Table of Contents

1: Introduction.-

PART 1: Theoretical Perspectives on Development of the Global Automotive Value Chain

2: Industrial Development in the Age of Global Value Chains: Implications for Emerging Automotive Industries.-

3: The Development of the Automotive Industry in Less Developed Countries.-

4: The Conditions for Upgrading: the Role of Multinational Automobile Carmakers in the Governance of Global Value Chains.-

5: How Labour Regimes Explain Development in Global Value Chains.-

6: Technology Adoption within Global Value Chains: Upgrading was (and remains) a Demanding Stairway.-

7: Institutional Origins of Successful Auto Industrialization: The East Asian Cases.-

8: Automotive Development Strategies in the Age of Global Value Chains: National Champion, Product Champion, and Technology Champion.-

PART 2: Country Cases: Development Trajectories of Automotive Industries in Emerging Countries.-

9: The Changing Position of Poland’s Automotive Industry in the European Division of Labour.-

10: Supply Chain Linkages in the Hungarian Automotive Industry: Challenges for Industrial Upgrading.-

11: Brazilian Automotive Industry: Ups, Downs and Future Challenges.-

12: The Emergence of the Light Commercial Vehicles Production Hub in Argentina.-

13: The Role of the State in the Emergence and Development of the Electric Vehicles Industry in China: Achievements, Opportunities and Challenges Ahead.-

14: Auto and EVs: the Case of India.-

15: Thailand: does Industrial Policy still Matter in an Era of Transition towards the Electrification of the Automotive Industry? .-

16: Vietnam’s Automotive Industry: Expansion with Limited Development.-

17: Production Volumes, Localisation and Technological Upgrading: South Africa in the Global Automotive Value Chain.-

18: Morocco’s Systematic Approach to Developing an Export-oriented Automotive Sector.-

Part 3: Conclusions.-

19: The Present and Future of Emerging Automotive Industries: Value Chain Reconfigurations as Drivers and Outcomes of Change.

CONCLUSIONS.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The automotive industry is one of the most globalized sectors in a world where the prospects for globalization have become extremely uncertain. It is undergoing rapid technological change with the shift to electric vehicles requiring major adjustments by firms and policymakers. This important book is therefore especially timely. The book provides crucial theoretical inputs on questions of upgrading, technology adoption, institutions and policy, with a perspective from the Global South, offering an important new departure from most works in this area. It includes country cases not only on leading players such as China and India, but on lesser-known producers such as Morocco. It shows the tension between the objective of an integrated industry and the GVC focus on specialization, highlighting the uncertain prospects all countries face. The contributors are acknowledged experts and leaders in their respective fields and this book can be strongly recommended to both researchers and policymakers.” (Anthony Black, Emeritus Professor, University of Cape Town)

“There are reasons — not all of them good — that the automotive industry lies at the center of industrial policies the world over, and has since the dawn of the industry. From Argentina to Vietnam, this volume collects the stories of countries as they strive to enter and upgrade their positions in the automotive GVC at a time of profound change. It makes for fascinating reading. The volume will surely serve as a benchmark for analysis of the global automotive industry.” (Timothy Sturgeon, MIT Industrial Performance Center)

“This book is an invaluable resource for all who are curious about the global automobile industry, especially the emerging actors from the developing world. Theoretical insights are accompanied by ten country case studies, which span from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. These rich case studies offer deep empirical insights into how technological advancements, such as electrification and digitalization, are reshaping the structure and power dynamics within the global value chain. Readers are therefore equipped with a more nuanced understanding of the evolving forces transforming this industry. Lorenza Monaco and Martin Schröder, as editors, have brought together an exceptional team to craft this insightful and compelling work.” (Tham Siew Yean, Professor Emeritus at National University of Malaysia (UKM))