The Dynamics of the Power Balance in Inter-Organizational Relationships: The Relationship Between Body Assemblers and Supplier Firms in BEVs

Abstract

This study examines the dynamics of the power balance in the inter-organizational relationship between vehicle body assemblers and supplier firms in battery electric vehicles (BEV) from the resource dependence perspective and co-opetition. With the global shift toward BEVs, Japanese auto body manufacturers must reconstruct and establish new inter-organizational relationships while maintaining strong relationships with traditional suppliers. On the other hand, new BEV suppliers must actively pursue global strategic alliances with body assemblers and expand their production capacity in line with industry growth. In this study, we visualize the dynamics of the power balance between the assemblers and suppliers using BEV-related patent information. Specifically, we quantify the importance of car body assemblers and supplier firms in the BEV industry using the hypertext induced topic selection algorithm and other techniques.