Publication Type

PhD Dissertation

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

4-2025

Abstract

This dissertation conducts a systematic study on the successful transformation and upgrading of China's automotive industry over the past decade, especially the remarkable progress made in the field of Electric and Intelligent Vehicles, and examines how China's automotive industry chain has seized the historical opportunity of the great transformation of the global automotive industry by “Four Modernizations”—electrification, intelligentization, lightweighting and modularization along the path of "Independent Innovation", and realized the overall improvement of both corporate performance and industrial strength under the synergy of strategic investors.

China has newly become the world's largest automotive exporter and successfully built up an advantageous industry that goes overseas first. As China's largest pillar industry, the phenomenal change in the strength of the automotive industry has a similar global impact to when the United States became the world's leading automotive power a hundred years ago. However, compared to the time when MIT named the School of Management after Alfred Sloan, the president of General Motors and then conducted professional research on the leading American automotive firms at that time, we have not yet seen scholars carry out systematic research on the current significant historical process of China's automotive industry.

Therefore, from the industrial perspective, this dissertation analyzes in depth how automotive firms are empowered by strategic investors in the industrial transformation through case studies, effectively using core technology resources and market brand resources through the strategic management system to achieve a leapfrog improvement in performance, and also comprehensively analyzes the synergy of firms on the industry chain through empirical research from the viewpoint of Total Factor Productivity, to find the mechanism by which industry "Chain Leaders" as strategic investors drive the synchronized development of "Chain Companies". The resources brought by strategic investors—technology, market, channels and brand have all been effectively integrated and utilized by the invested firms. China's automotive industry has taken the lead in achieving Four Modernizations globally, and several world-class firms have emerged in various sub-sectors.

The research findings on the automotive industry could provide theoretical support and practical benchmark for entities such as firms, governments, financial and investment corporations to formulate investing strategies of advanced manufacturing and other high-tech industries, making the "China experience" a benchmark for the global automotive industry. We will also see the strong export and global operations of China’s automotive industry holding a more representative core position in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Keywords

Enterprises’ Achievements, Standardized Construction Site, Probability of Winning, Project Wins, Game Theory

Degree Awarded

Doctor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance)

Discipline

Accounting | Asian Studies

Supervisor(s)

WANG, Rencheng

First Page

1

Last Page

288

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

Copyright Owner and License

Author

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