Measurement of R&D capabilities in Chinese self-brand automotive firms

R&D capabilities has been widely recognised and widely studied. Little research has been done on measurement of R&D capabilities although there are lots of other related literatures about R&D measurement. This paper aims at constructing an assessing model of R&D capabilities, according to which, we measure R&D capabilities of Chinese self-brand automotive firms. The empirical result shows that there is non-equilibrium and large gap on R&D capabilities among Chinese self-brand automotive enterprises. The R&D capabilities of traditional big automotive firms are weaker than that of the latecomers in China. Also, there is a large gap of R&D capabilities between Chinese self-brand automotive enterprises and foreign transnational ones who are stronger. The emerging automotive firms such as Geely, Chery and BYD represent the direction of progress in China. Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.