Empirical analysis on the evolution of technological capability in China´s automotive firms

One of the reasons that China has become the second largest automaker country in the world is the improvement of technological capability in China´s automotive firms (TCCAF). This study seeks to the evolutionary path of TCCAF from acquisition of foreign technology to independent innovation. In this paper, after discussing the formative mechanism of technological capability, we built a model of the source and evaluation of technological capability. Through the evaluation model with principal component analysis, we evaluate the technological capability of China´s self-brand automotive firms. The results indicate that there are obvious differentials between passenger vehicle companies and commercial vehicle ones, between traditional enterprises and emerging ones. We analyze the reasons of the differentials and put forward some policy suggestions on improving TCCAF.