earticle

영어

This paper examines the outcome of strategic choice of auto parts suppliers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that auto parts suppliers are more dependent to and smaller than their buyers (automakers) in the automobile industry, the strategic choices of auto parts suppliers are subject to the relationship with automakers. Given such asymmetric dependence and power imbalance between those two parties, we examine the impact of flexibility (exports) and commitment (to buyers) of auto parts suppliers. Analyzing the data from the auto parts suppliers in South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic, we discovered the inverted U-relationship between exports and the financial performance. However, the commitment hypothesis was not statistically significant.