Are We Better off Alone? A Qualitative Study on Which Ways Digitalization has Impacted the Disintermediation in the Vehicle Industry

Sammanfattning: The paradigm shift in the vehicle industry, partly caused by digitalization and the conversion to electric alternatives, has pressured traditional manufacturers to reconsider pre-existing practices and distribution methods to align with market developments. By investigating digitalization's impact on disintermediation in the vehicle industry, and which considerations a firm should make when contemplating disintermediation, the purpose of the study is to provide a model proposition, suitable to use when considering disintermediation and integration of value-creating activities into the firm. The qualitative and explorative methodology provides the study with an understanding of the developing industry, while it clarifies possible long-term implications. Through in-depth interviews with employees of European-based vehicle companies with operations in the global arena, combined with existing theories regarding disintermediation (Shunk et al., 2007) and strategic models by Porter (1985), interesting arguments in favor of and against disintermediation are found. Firms are evidently affected by this paradigm shift and questioning their distribution channels. The empirical results laid the foundation to the model proposition grasping which value drivers are more prone to internalization versus externalization.