The automotive industry in China: the rise of indigenous enterprises and the case of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group

This thesis analyses the evolution of Chinese automotive industry, which now holds the strongest position on global markets, as it overtook the American and the European markets. The most interesting aspect we should take into consideration is the speed of growth, as the Chinese sector was almost non-existent forty decades ago. As a matter of fact, after the economic instability characterizing Mao's administration, the government opened up in 1978, starting a long period of reforms, which allowed China's progressive transition into the modern era. This huge growth has been possible thanks to a specific development model, often adopted by authoritarian governments, which can control the whole society and intervene within national economy to foster growth and development. However, on the other hand, the Chinese growth path has been quite distinct from that of other East Asian countries, as it has generally been more uneven and irregular, as we can see by the different actions that have been gradually implemented. Economic and industrial policies led to a fragmented but competitive sector, where the traditional and protected state-owned corporations competed against indigenous enterprises, both national and private, whose strategies highly impacted on the overall sector's economic performances. Among these enterprises, we analyse Geely Holding Group, which became one of the most important Chinese private enterprises, which well shows the graduality and the depth of changes in China. This thesis aims to analyse the Chinese automotive industry by taking into consideration Geely Holding Group's rise and the policy evolution in the car sector, trying to give a contribution to the research on industrial policies.