Green, Sustainable and Disruptive Supply Chains: Transition Toward Electric Vehicles

The global automotive industry is undergoing a lightning transition towards electric vehicles (EVs), driven by concerns over climate change. In this race to achieve zero-emissions, manufacturers are competing to fill new market gaps - from the neatly-packaged Smart EQ and Mini-E to the high-tech luxury of the Jaguar I-Pace and Tesla Model-S. This trend reflects a significant moment of disruptive innovation that is impacting on Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and associated suppliers and their respective roles within the national and global supply chain. This in turn is destroying existing business models and technological solutions. Adaptation to disruptive innovation is therefore key to the on-going survival of the UK automotive industry. Furthermore, amidst the collective response to these profound disruptive changes, there is also growing innovative pressures being passed on from OEMs to suppliers. Suppliers face the task of implementing adaptation strategies aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of existing products and processes, as well as innovating cleaner products and processes. The key issue concerns the development of electric powertrains and related components for EVs.

The automotive industry is a pinnacle sector of the UK's manufacturing economy, generating over £80bn in turnover and employing more than 800,000 people in 2018, enabling industry exports to reach in excess of £40bn. The supply chain alone consists of over 2,500 firms and employs more than 80,000 workers. In particular, the West Midlands region is home to 50 of the world's top 100 suppliers. The transition toward EVs during economic unpredictability caused by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic has created a challenging and turbulent environment for UK automotive suppliers.

Drawing upon contingency theory and dynamic capabilities theory, the main objectives of this thesis are:
1. To understand how internal and external factors are influencing the transition toward the production of EVs and supply chain processes in the UK automotive industry.
2. Explore key internal and external drivers of innovation in different supply chain models and the emergence of new approaches.
3. Identify and explore strategic innovations of environmentally responsible products and processes and how these are affecting automotive firms' environmental and economic performance.
4. Understand whether these innovations are driven by suppliers or the OEMs and the positional tier from which innovations originate.

The proposed methodology for this research will be a comparative research design using mixed methods including quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. Exploratory interviews with key stakeholders (automotive industry associations, industry experts, policy makers, and local authorities) will be conducted in conjunction with a systematic literature review to identify the contextual factors influencing the transition toward EVs and the relevant constructs, scales and types of questions to be explored in the subsequent survey. Subsequently, a survey will be distributed to 500 randomly selected supply chain firms to elucidate key factors that drive innovation of eco products and processes and their impacts on firm performance. Finally, a small sample of respondents will be identified and contacted from the survey to participate in in-depth face-to-face interviews to develop more detailed firm-level case studies that will focus on different types of adaptation strategies.

This study will provide key insights to managers and stakeholders regarding strategic best practice, policy formulation, implementation and potential consequences of failing to adapt, as well as engaging with wider literature on innovation of eco products and processes.