Belchior, Ricardo FigueiredoEsteves, João António Zarco Novais2025-06-022025-06-022025-02-062025-06-02http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/101187This dissertation explores how a firm within the European automotive industry adapts to the ongoing transition towards electric vehicles (EVs). Focusing on Renault’s strategic and organisational responses, key areas examined include collaboration within and outside the sector, market expectations, R&D policies, and brand repositioning to address new competitors and consumer needs. Utilising a qualitative methodology, this dissertation uses a single-case study approach, structurally analysing Renault’s annual management reports between 2008 and 2023. The analysis is presented according to Kim et al. (2022), dynamic capabilities framework, encompassing collaborative, entrepreneurial, opportunity sensing and strategic flexibility dimensions. Findings reveal Renault’s shift from cost-oriented partnerships to technology collaborations, such as joint ventures related to battery development and car connectivity. Market expectations evolved, influenced by economic crises and regulatory changes, initially, driving demand for affordable vehicles in smaller segments. Renault’s entrepreneurial orientation is seen in 13 concept cars developed during the analysed period, initially focusing on sustainability before diversifying into new segments. Strategically, Renault refined its EV approach, pioneering its first EV in 2012 but only integrating hybrid and full electric technologies broadly by 2020. Hybrid models addressed sustainability and consumer concerns over EV reliability. In the final years of the study (2019 onwards), Renault shifted its focus to more premium products in the Compact and SUV segments, underlining its untapped potential, and further signalling Renault's repositioning in the current market, facing the threat of Asian manufacturers and emerging players in the industry. Concluding, Renault’s electric mobility strategy reflects gradual, technological, market, and product shifts, balancing innovation, competition, and consumer demands. The study supplements existing literature on incumbent innovation, while also contributing with valuable strategic insights from one of Europe’s biggest vehicle manufacturers.engIndústria automóvelInovaçãoSustentabilidadeVeículo elétricoTeses de mestrado - 2025Automotive industryInnovationSustainabilityElectric vehiclesmaster thesis203949838