Optimising the location of R&D and production activities: Trends in the automotive industry

Résumé En

This article analyses the location strategies pursued by multinational corporations. The em-pirical study is based on automobile MNCs of Triad nations, which need to optimise the loca-tion of their activities in order to remain competitive. The main objective of the paper is to determine to which extent automotive MNCs are globalised or regionalised. The analysis fo-cuses on production and R&D activities, which play a strategic role in the global value chain of companies. The arguments presented show that, whilst most car manufacturers used to concentrate a large part of production and R&D activities in their country of origin or home region, they currently accelerate the geographic diversification of investments. Thus, the im-portance of production and, to a lesser extent, of R&D facilities based abroad is constantly growing, especially in emerging markets, which can be considered particularly attractive terri-tories for MNCs. In a context in which the attractiveness of countries and regions appears to be in a state of constant change, the present study contributes to a better understanding of the location choices made by automotive MNCs.