中東欧自動車産業の「高度化」と欧州生産ネットワークの行方

抄録

The purpose of this paper is to examine the latest development of the automotive industry in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) which has been playing an important role in the international division of labor in Europe since the Enlargement of European Union (EU). In particular, we will consider the new role of CEE in the European automotive production system by empirically analyzing and examining the emergences of Research and Development (R&D) activities. At the same time, we will explore the basic structure of the international network production / division of labor model of the European automotive industry and the direction of its future development.

As a whole, the development of R&D business in CEE is weak, and most of the automotive R&D activities remain concentrated on the EU core (Western European) countries. In the Czech Republic, although industrial upgrading such as the rise of R&D business is progressing, but its activities are focused mainly on production line improvement and productive technology support. The R&D business in the Czech automotive industry is limited to the technical support of production. It has the character of non-strategic, lower-end standardized R&D activities at the level of daily work. The development of R&D activities in CEE is based on a strategic coupling between the existing local R&D assets and the strategic R&D needs of automotive Transnational Companies (TNCs).

The rise of R&D in CEE has not changed the marginal position and the peripheral nature of CEE in the international division of labor of the European automobile production networks. Although the automotive industry in the Central and Eastern European countries is expected as an indispensable industry for the development of the national economy, one of the keys to look for the future is how it is tied to the production networks spreading on the European scale.