TY  - JOUR
AU  - Helper, Susan
AU  - Kuan, Jennifer
TI  - What Goes on Under the Hood? How Engineers Innovate in the Automotive Supply Chain
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 22552
PY  - 2016
Y2  - August 2016
DO  - 10.3386/w22552
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w22552
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w22552.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Susan Helper
Weatherhead School of Management
Case Western Reserve University
11119 Bellflower Rd
Cleveland, OH  44106-7235
Tel: 216/368-5541
Fax: 216/368-5542
E-Mail: susan.helper@case.edu

Jennifer Kuan
E-Mail: kuan@alumni.stanford.edu
M1  - published as Susan Helper, Jennifer Kuan. "What Goes On under the Hood? How Engineers Innovate in the Automotive Supply Chain," in Richard B. Freeman and Hal Salzman, editors, "U.S. Engineering in a Global Economy" University of Chicago Press (2018)

M3  - presented at "U.S. Engineering in the Global Economy", September 26-27, 2011
AB  - The questions addressed in this volume are motivated by the recognition that engineers play an important role in generating innovation and economic growth. In this chapter, we seek to offer some description of engineering work by looking in detail at a specific manufacturing industry—firms that supply automakers—to gain insight into how engineers create innovation. Autos account for 5% of US GDP and in 2011, 70% of auto suppliers contributed design effort, a task typically performed by engineers, making the auto supply chain an important context in which to study engineering and innovation.

Some highlights from our original survey data include a wide range in terms of size and strategies of supply chain companies; a majority was small- to medium-sized, often family-owned. We observed barriers to patenting for manufacturing firms developing process rather than product innovations. And interviews revealed the importance of customers for the innovative efforts of supplier firms. Certain Japanese customers were preferred because they shared expertise and helped suppliers improve, while other, American, customers were viewed as having unreasonable demands for regular, incremental price reductions and did not offer technical or organizational support.
ER  -