This article questions a terminology that is frequently used to describe automotive supply chains’ industrial architecture. Since vertical disintegration became a trend in the 1980s, this architecture has been represented using the image of the pyramid. Implicitly, authors have had the image...

The modular revolution has transformed the industrial architecture of the automotive supply chain. Now it is conventional to describe it as a narrow pyramid where only mega-suppliers have access to manufacturers. However, some authors show that SME still manage to reach the summit of a pyramid...

Many studies have looked at the effectiveness of public schemes supporting private R&D but few have highlighted the role regions play in R&D funding. The present article assesses the R&D support package developed in the Aquitaine, France’s number one region in terms of proportion of budget...