Extended deadline until 17/02!
In 2025, for the first time the International Colloquium of Gerpisa will be hosted in China, jointly by Emlyon business school (France) and School of Economics and Management, Tongji University (China). This will be the opportunity to focus the attention of our international research network on the changing role that China plays in the transformation of the global automotive industry.
After becoming the main market and producer of passenger cars several years ago, China is now also the main exporter of vehicles and the uncontested global leader in the production of batteries and electric vehicles (EVs).
The competitive advantage acquired by Chinese companies throughout the EVs value chain has become so significant that both the Unites States and the European Union have recently enacted a series of protectionist policies to contain the growth of Chinese exports of batteries and passenger cars in their domestic markets.
Given the degree of global integration of automotive value chains in each region of production, such policies raise important questions concerning the transformation of regional value chains, in particular for EVs. They also have important implications for consumers and the “affordability” of EVs, which has become one of the main hurdles on the road towards decarbonised mobility both in the US and Europe. More fundamentally, they highlight the central role that states and their policies and regulations play in this radical transition towards electro-mobility, with trade policies being only one amongst several other political tools including environmental regulations and vertical industrial policies that States can activate to navigate this challenging transition, including environmental regulations and industrial policies.
These geopolitical transformations not only concern China, the US and Europe but have important implications for all automotive countries and their mutual relationships in terms of trade, technological transfers and FDI in mature and emerging economies. Can the Chinese automotive industry’s globalization be delayed while the rest of the world catches up? How long will it take for the rest of the world to catch up to the 10-year advantage China has in EVs, especially in batteries? Will China’s home market become such a long-term competitive advantage for their local manufacturers (once their numbers are reduced significantly) that the need to globalize will be reduced? How will non-Chinese OEMs and suppliers survive and thrive in the new NEV-centric environment?
A crucial question in this debate about policymaking and states’ interventions concerns the competitive advantage of Chinese companies both in battery and EVs development and manufacturing.
How can we quantify and characterise this competitive advantage? What are its sources? How much is it driven by successful Chinese state policies? How much is it driven by new distinct productive models dedicated to electric vehicles development and production?
How will traditional states and automotive industries be able to deal with the “Chinese challenge”? What are their responses to growing Chinese exports of EVs? Can traditional OEMs and battery makers catch up with their Chinese competitors and how? Can Western states emulate the successful deployment of the Chinese new energy vehicles policies?
Will other emerging countries be able to emulate the Chinese success? What are the conditions for leapfrogging not only in EVs, but also in battery manufacturing, new mobility services, connected vehicles and other new key technological domains? How for instance, will the key role of strategic raw materials in the EV transition be able to provide to other Asian, South American and African countries levers for upgrading their automotive industries?
While the scenario of a possible trade war keeps unfolding, we also see an increasing amount of cooperation between Chinese and Western companies, as well as fast growing direct investment in Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Russia by Chinese OEMs and battery makers.
Several analysts as well as many CEOs of Western companies highlight how much such cooperation is needed to meet regional CO2 targets and achieve carbon neutrality in road transport by 2050. In fact, joint ventures between Chinese state-owned enterprises and traditional OEMs have been developing for many years. We now witness a new distinct wave of acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic partnerships between private Chinese OEMs and battery makers, on the one hand, and traditional OEMs and their first tier suppliers, on the other hand. Will the US and the EU require Chinese auto manufacturers and battery suppliers to joint venture with local companies for market access and technology transfer, similar to China’s requirements 25 years ago? These joint efforts are not limited to electrification, but they also concern autonomous driving and new mobility services. Chinese companies have also been increasing investments in South American and African countries where they play an increasing central role in car manufacturing, technological transfers, and infrastructure building.
We welcome papers that explore these new forms of cooperation and analyse their implications for both traditional manufacturers and suppliers and Chinese companies, their suppliers, and their workers, as well in other automotive regions in South America, Africa and Russia.
How do Chinese companies approach their new role of technology leaders? What are the institutional forms taken by these collaborations/joint ventures? Do they differ from the long-standing joint ventures between state owned enterprises and traditional OEMs in China? What type of employment relationship have they developed? By comparison with the debate about the Japanese model in the 1980s and 1990s, can we talk about a “Chinese model”, and if yes, how do we characterise it? Can it be exported overseas? And if yes, what type of hybridisation would it entail?
While the focus of this year’s call for papers is on China, Chinese OEMs and battery makers, and how Western, Asian and Global South states and their companies deal with this challenge/opportunity, we also welcome papers that analyse the current transformations of the global automotive industry from other perspectives.
We will notably keep focusing our attention on electrification as the main technological transformation currently experienced by the global automotive industry. We welcome papers that:
- analyse how electrification is implemented and developed in different national contexts and in different companies
- examine the evolving role of public policies and regulations in shaping and sustaining the transition towards battery electric vehicles
- focus on the battery sector and the structuring of domestic electric vehicle value chains in different countries and regions
- discuss the implications of electrification for workers (restructuring, reskilling and training, quality of work, contracts and negotiations, etc.) and citizens (affordability of cars, access to mobility, mobility poverty, usages and automobility cultures, etc.)
- explore/question the relationship between electrification and digitalisation, in particular the phenomenon of the so-called “twin transition”.
We also welcome papers that focus more specifically on the current crisis of electrification, in particular in Europe, where sales of BEVs have stagnated in 2024, with several OEMs announcing factory closures
On digitalisation we also welcome papers that analyse its past, on-going and future impacts on both process and product. We welcome papers that explore how Industry 4.0 keeps diffusing and transforming the automotive sector, impacting work and employment, triggering reshoring or offshoring and transforming global and regional value chains. We also welcome papers that take into account the more recent developments of Artificial Intelligence and how it is implemented in manufacturing processes, product development, logistics, dealerships, and with consumers in the automotive sector.
After having discussed in depth during last year’s international colloquium the future prospects of Connected Autonomous, Shared and Electric vehicles we look forward to engage with new contributions taking into account the latest developments of autonomous driving and new mobilities in different national contexts and from different perspectives such as Mobility as a Service, platform economy, business models, transport studies or science and technology studies.
Another important topic we would like to highlight is the development of the circular economy in the automotive sector. We welcome papers that analyse how the concept of a circular economy is now increasingly integrated by OEMs in their core business (re-factories, extend-producer-responsibility, recycling) and how traditional actors of the downstream part of the automotive sector (repair shops, fast fitters, technical inspection sectors, end-of-life vehicles centers and recyclers) deal with this new dynamic context. We welcome in particular papers that explore the implications of these new developments for battery electric vehicles, their maintenance, repair, reuse and, eventually, their recycling.
On all these issues and debates we welcome papers that take into account different stakeholders’ perspectives: from industry associations to NGOs, from political parties to trade unions, from consumers’ associations to regional and local governments.
We welcome papers from academics, members of our international network, and from actors that are involved in the public debate, such as trade unions, environmental NGOs, employers associations, government agencies, as well as auto manufacturers and their suppliers. We welcome papers from all social sciences, both focusing on the current transitions, but also providing historical accounts of previous transitions where similar debates took place.
The call is organised in three streams that focus (1) on challenges for work and labour; (2) on social and regulatory contexts; and (3) on companies, products, technologies and value chains.
To submit a proposal you need to log in with your user account (or create a new one) and click on the submit link under the theme you want to submit for.
A selection of the best papers presented during the colloquium, including the winner of the young author’s prize (see below) will be included in a special issue of the International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management (IJATM).
Guidelines for paper submission
To submit a proposal, please click the link below the chosen theme. Proposals should range between 500 and 1,000 words. They should present the outline of the research question (purpose), the methodology (design), the main results (findings) and their significance (practical and theoretical implications).
Instructions on how to submit final articles will be sent by email following the proposal acceptance. Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis, and those submitted at the February 2, 2025 deadline will be accepted by February 12, 2025 (at the latest).
Final articles should range between 5,000-7,000 words (excluding figures, tables and references) in order to be considered for the IJATM special issue. High-quality articles that exceed 7,000 words will be also considered on a case-by-case basis.
The 2025 Colloquium will receive support from the States and Markets Working Group of the Young Scholars Initiative (https://ysi.ineteconomics.org/ ). This support includes the possibility of offering funding to partially cover traval expenses for early-career scholars. To be eligible for this funding, please indicate your willingness to participate when submitting your paper proposal.
Guidelines for panel submission
To submit a panel, follow the guidelines for paper submission above for each communication, and send a panel proposal to gerpisa@gerpisa.org. Panels will be accepted on rolling basis and their specific calls/presentations added below.
IJATM special issue
The International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management (IJATM) published by Inderscience publishes a special issue each year selected from papers presented during the GERPISA yearly colloquium. One or two papers from young authors will also be published in this special issue. An evaluation committee, composed of members of the GERPISA International Steering Committee, will assess the papers during the colloquium (young authors and others) and invite those chosen to submit to the IJATM Special Issue. After the decision of the GERPISA’s steering committee, the selected papers will be refereed through a double-blind process prior to final acceptance.
The criteria of the assessment are the relevance of the topic, the quality of the presentation (for work in progress), the strength of the results, the quality of the methodological work, and the review of the literature. Work across the social sciences (including history, management, economics, sociology, geography, and political science) dealing with the automobile industry is welcome.
Gerpisa Young Author Prize
The Young Author’s Prize of GERPISA, consisting of the publication of the winning paper in a special issue of IJATM and a €1,500 award, recognizes the work of young researchers on topics related to the automobile industry. Our goal is to encourage scholars to focus on topics related to the automobile industry early in their career.
Requirements to submit a paper proposal for the young author’s prize:
- Masters and Ph.D. students, post-docs and junior faculty are eligible. Applicants should be under age 37. Papers co-authored with a senior researcher will be assessed only for masters and doctoral students. We exclude those at the associate professor level or above, and senior researchers.)
- Paper based on the analysis (whether theoretical, methodological, or empirical) of the automobile industry (topics have to cover one of the three themes of the colloquium);
- Presentation of the paper by the young author during the 32nd international colloquium in person.
- Submission online (specifying that the authors wish to be considered for the prize). They should also email basic information (name, date of birth, nationality, status, university/research affiliation, topic, and abstract) to Giuseppe Calabrese (giuseppe.giulio.calabrese@ircres.cnr.it), and Tommaso Pardi (tommaso.pardi@ens-cachan.fr) before 17 February 2025 (EXTENSION), for the proposal and 15 April 2025, for the final paper.
Paper Preparation:
- An original article would normally consist of 5000-7000 words (excluding figures, tables and references).
- All articles must be written in UK English. If English is not your first language, please ask an English-speaking colleague to proofread your article.
- Submissions may be formatted in single or double spacing, preferably in Times New Roman size 12 font.
The paper should include the following:
- Title: as short as possible, with no abbreviations or acronyms.
- Abstract: approximately 100 words, maximum 150.
- Keywords: approximately 10-15 words or phrases. Keywords are important for online searching;
- Address*: position, department, name of institution, email address for each author.
- Biographical notes*: approximately 100 words per author.
- Text: no more than 7000 words (excluding figures, tables and references).
- Tables and figures: please put in the text where tables and figures are positioned.
- References: IJATM papers are recommended.
- Notes: the less the better.
- Acknowledgment: in case you have any.
