Mapping interaction patterns of German IT and engineering services for automotive applications

Abstract

This study explores how technical services for automotive applications organize their value-added activities. It does so from the background of a market transition towards electric vehicles and vehicle connectivity. Conceptually, the article combines the literature stream of global value chains and global production networks (GVC-GPN) and knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). This paper puts a specific focus on the temporality of client-vendor relationships and argues that interfirm relationships often last longer than their project-based mode suggests they would. Despite ongoing fundamental transitions of industry structures towards electric vehicles and vehicle connectivity, the relationships of incumbent OEMs and technical service firms continues to be hierarchical. Analyzing these dynamics on the level of value-added inputs, the concepts of GVC-GPN and KIBS meaningfully complement each other for outlining the mutual dependencies of market dynamics, the characteristics of a service input and the organizational outcome of the client-vendor relationship.