Evolution of Startups in Automotive Supply Chain

The automotive industry is highly exposed to the changes in the current economic situation. Product development practices must be evolved to exploit the new possibilities. Startups play an increasingly dominant role in the economy through empowering risk-taking and innovative entrepreneurial behaviour. Collaboration with startups in product development leads to particular management challenges. While the automotive industry is sensitive to quality and requires controlled procedures, startups’ risk-taking behaviour can be hazardous in the entire supply chain. Furthermore, the expectations and opportunities of startups and usual firms are different, resulting in conflicts and risks in the product development process. The study investigates the evolution of the automotive supply chain focusing on enhancing the relevance of startups and highlighting critical factors and risks of the transition. The literature on automotive product development raises the consideration of risk management. The paper applied this knowledge base to startups. The goal is to map the factors, which are the opportunities and risks of the startups in the supply chain considering industry experience.