Acknowledgments

Europe’s Auto Industry draws on my six previously published articles in academic journals during the 2016–2023 period. All these original articles have been edited and where possible updated. Chapter 2 is based on Petr Pavlínek (2022) Revisiting Economic Geography and Foreign Direct Investment in Less Developed Regions. Geography Compass 16(4), e12617: 1–21, doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12617, published by Wiley. Chapter 3 was originally published by Taylor & Francis on behalf of Clark University as Petr Reference PavlínekPavlínek (2018) Global Production Networks, Foreign Direct Investment, and Supplier Linkages in the Integrated Peripheries of the Automotive Industry. Economic Geography 94(2): 141–165, doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2017.1393313. Chapter 4 originally appeared as Petr Reference PavlínekPavlínek (2020) Restructuring and Internationalization of the European Automotive Industry. Journal of Economic Geography 20(2): 509–541, doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lby070, published by Oxford University Press. Chapter 5 is based on Petr Pavlínek (2022) Relative Positions of Countries in the Core-Periphery Structure of the European Automotive Industry. European Urban and Regional Studies 29(1): 59–84, doi.org/10.1177/09697764211021882, published by SAGE Publications. Chapter 6 was originally published by SAGE Publications as Petr Pavlínek and Jan Ženka (2016) Value Creation and Value Capture in the Automotive Industry: Empirical Evidence from Czechia. Environment and Planning A 48(5): 937–959, doi.org/10.1177/0308518X15619934. Finally, Chapter 7 originally appeared as Petr Reference PavlínekPavlínek (2023) Transition of the Automotive Industry towards Electric Vehicle Production in the East European Integrated Periphery. Empirica 50(1): 35–73, doi.org/10.1007/s10663-022-09554-9, which was published by Springer. I want to thank these publishers for their permission to use my previous work in this book. I also want to thank Jan Ženka for his permission to use the article “Value Creation and Value Capture in the Automotive Industry: Empirical Evidence from Czechia” he has originally coauthored for Chapter 6.

My gratitude goes to everyone who helped with the collection of data for the original articles used in this book. Pavla Žížalová, Jan Ženka, Pavol Hurbánek and Miroslava Poláková participated in organizing and conducting company interviews in Czechia and Slovakia. Jan Pulec and Tomáš Michl helped with the data extraction from the European Restructuring Monitor for Chapter 3. Monika Martišková extracted data from the ComExt database, calculated the positional power and conducted the cluster analysis used in Chapter 6. Inge Ivarsson and Claes Alvstam helped with finding R&D data for Sweden for Chapter 6. Karel Hostomský produced maps used in Chapters 2–3. Special thanks go to John Pickles for his encouragement to pursue the publication of this book.

I am grateful to the Czech Science Foundation for supporting the research presented in this book with three research grants over the years. The preparation of this book was supported by a research grant from the Czech Science Foundation (grant number: 23-07819S).

The biggest thanks go to my wife Gabriela and children Adam and Sára for their continuing love, support, patience and encouragement in my academic endeavors.