Bart Kamp
International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management Volume 6, Number 2/2006 pp.214 - 235
English // Keywords: international business, location behaviour, buyer-supplier relationships, network theory, automobile industry, Spain, international networks, automotive networks, automotive suppliers, car assembly plants, foreign ownership.
Description
The article reports on the research question whether the 'relative value' of car assembly plants influences suppliers' location behaviour. This is done from a business-to-business and international business network perspective. Empirical material, on which longitudinal case study analyses are performed, comes from buyer-supplier networks around foreign-owned car assembly plants in Spain. With regard to both subsidiaries, a reconstruction is provided of their respective relative value to suppliers and the geographical areas from which these subsidiaries receive the conjoint of automotive components they process into their assembly operations. Findings from both cases provide support for the assumption that the relative value of buyer firms has a uniform impact on location behaviour of supplier firms.
