I am an Australian student of economics currently studying in Sweden at Lund university. I have a task to make a case of what it takes (in terms of actors, resources and activities) to make the Prius, that is to say, their value chain. I need to focus on resources from outside of their own firm i.e. their network. That could be information, production, marketing, distribution etc. I decided on the Prius as it is a vehicle at the cutting edge of technology, and receives ample media coverage. Any help at all would be much appreciated. Many thanks, Lewis
Welcome to PC! Now, this study ... what kind of degree am I going to get ? ... whoops ... I mean, what kind of degree are YOU going to get. .
As a recent Masters in Management receipiant, who has written similar papers, I don't want to discourage you but a Prius is a very complicated and difficult product to take on for this type of study. To do this right you would need to know all of the suppliers Toyota uses for the car, which is difficult information to obtain. Additionally, the size and complexity of the product means there will potentially be hundreds of suppliers. When I prepared for such a paper, I performed a lot of generalized research first to try to find (in the case of this paper) published information on the complete value chain for a given product. I used the availability of information to pick my subject, not pick a product and then try to find information on it. Just a suggestion on how I managed my research (and it was good for a 3.9 grade point average for my Masters).
