Abstract:

Although it is one of the world’s most successful industries, the automotive industry was one of the biggest losers of the economic crisis of 2008. The crisis caused negative effects throughout the automobile supply chain, but research about this period has been focused on car dealerships. The objective of this paper is to provide insight gained from comprehensive research conducted in the Hungarian car trade market through in-depth interviews with car dealership owners and a wide questionnaire survey with the managers of car dealerships. The paper focuses on crisis management measures of the post-crisis period. Statistical methods were applied in the analysis of the questionnaire, such as cross-tabulation analysis, chi-squared tests, cluster analysis, variance analysis, and Tukey-type HSD. The study explores the factors and tools for surviving the crisis. Research results confirm that focusing on sales, customer service, and quality are the key factors for keeping and increasing competitiveness and market position

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