SUCCESSFUL COOPERATION IN AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH – A KEYFACTOR FOR SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS IN THE EUROPEANAUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY?

摘要

Latest developments in the automotive industry are characterised by companies’ concentrationrnprocesses, varying legislative and societal circumstances, rapidly changing markets andrntechnologies as well as shortened life cycles of products. The automotive industry itself is heavilyrnfocusing on concentration on their core competencies in the last few years. Therefore, variousrnstrategic networks and cooperation forms occurred in order to meet all the emerging challengesrnmentioned above. Consequently, the question has been investigated within this paper howrninterdisciplinary research cooperation, especially in the development of hybrid and electricrnvehicles, can be designed successfully. The objective was to identify the best practice organisationrnin this area.rnBy means of a survey performed in 2004 it could be confirmed that there are various successrnfactors existing. The most important factors are effective communication, trust and clear focusingrnon targets. Rather irrelevant are compatible organisational structures, compatible corporaterncultures and the compatibility of IT-systems.rnSignificant differences between different types of companies (OEMs, suppliers, R&Drnorganisations and universities) have become known: The most important factors for OEMs arerneffective and efficient coordination as well as clear focusing of targets. Alternatively, industrialrnsuppliers think that trust and effective communication are the most important factors forrncooperation. Research organisations on the other hand state that interdependence, effectiverncommunication and trust are the central success factors. A common understanding of allrnorganisation types is that compatibility of IT-Systems is most irrelevant for a successfulrncooperation.