When Asset-Light is Built Right: Empirical Identification and Quantification of Shock Absorption Mechanisms in Automotive OEMs

Sammanfattning

As the automotive industry transitions toward electric vehicles and more externalized production architectures, an increasing number of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are moving toward asset-light configurations. Although this model has traditionally been examined mainly from a financial and strategic-efficiency perspective, as a way to reduce fixed-asset intensity, improve capital efficiencyand increase flexibility, recent shocks have made its operational dimension increasingly relevant. The COVID-19 disruption, rising geopolitical tensions, trade-policy uncertainty and supplier concentration in batteries, semiconductors and software have exposed the risks of external dependence. Yet the performance implications of asset-lightness under systemic supply-chain disruption remain insufficiently understood. This thesis addresses this gap by examining how asset-lightness reshapes disruption exposure and shock-response capacity in automotive OEMs, focusing on the governance mechanisms that substitute physical ownership and on the supply-network conditions that shape performance under stress.The study adopts a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design. First, a qualitative case study of Polestar Automotive identifies how an asset-light OEM reconstitutes control without full manufacturing ownership. The case shows that asset-lightness does not imply organizational hollowness, but relies on ecosystem-based access to strategic partners, specification-based control, coordination routines, operational visibility, selective internal capability retention and network-level governance choices concerning supplier concentration, geographic configuration and buyer–supplier dependence asymmetry.Second, these insights are examined through a balanced panel analysis of automotive OEMs over the 2018–2024 period. Asset-lightness is operationalized through a multidimensional Asset-Lightness Index (ALI), distinguishing weak asset-lightness, based on reduced physical and operating capital commitment, from strong asset-lightness, based on intangible and knowledge-oriented resource proxies associated with external orchestration. Global supply-chain pressure is measured through the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (GSCPI), while supplier concentration, geographic concentration andpower asymmetry capture the structural architecture of the externalized supply network.The findings show that asset-lightness alone is not a robust standalone predictor of operating performance under systemic supply-chain disruption. Its consequences are conditional on network structure and disruption phase. Supplier and geographic concentration may support coordination and short-run absorption when supply-chain pressure rises, but become constraints when pressure eases and recovery requires flexibility and reconfiguration. Power asymmetry plays a narrower role, mainly when asset-lightness is accompanied by stronger orchestration capability. Overall, the thesis reframes asset lightness as a redistribution of control rather than a simple reduction of assets, showing that its performance under disruption depends on whether reduced ownership is matched by governance mechanisms capable of preserving coordination under stress and flexibility during recovery.