Geography

Industry Emergence and Market Capture: The Rise of Autonomous Vehicles

Document Type

Book Chapter

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine how the rise of autonomous vehicles (AV) is reshaping the power dynamics in the automobile industry through competition from the information technology (IT) industry. Through the concept of market capture we analyze how incumbents and newcomers pursue control over the definition, evolution, and technology of a newly emerging market. We demonstrate this with an analysis of technological acquisitions and alliance networks for 2011–2018, a period where the AV industry first coalesced and then experienced dramatic growth. By examining firm transactions through their geographic locations and an array of centrality measures, we shed light on interfirm dynamics shaping the emergence and evolution of the AV industry. This research demonstrates how market capture can serve as a useful framework to analyze competition, cooperation, geographic patterns, and power asymmetries in the transaction network of an emerging industry. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

Publication Title

Economic Geography (Switzerland)

Publication Date

2025

First Page

1

Last Page

22

ISSN

2520-1417

DOI

10.1007/978-3-032-01602-7_1

Keywords

alliance networks, autonomous vehicles, market capture, mergers and acquisitions (M&A)

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