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The Tortoise and the Hare: Industry Clockspeed and Resilience of Production and Knowledge Networks in Montréal’s Aerospace Industry

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  • Li Pengfei

    (University of Calgary Haskayne School of Business 2500 University Dr NW Calgary Alberta Canada T2N 1N4 Calgary Canada)

  • Turkina Ekaterina

    (HEC Montréal Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation 3000 chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine Montréal Québec Canada H3T 2A7 Montréal Canada)

  • Van Assche Ari

    (HEC Montréal Department of International Business 3000 chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine Montréal Québec Canada H3T 2A7 ORCID-ID: Montréal Canada)

Abstract

A central challenge in current cluster policy discussions is how to build innovative clusters that are resilient to external shocks. We examine the Montréal aerospace industry to explore cluster resilience. The case is interesting since it recently experienced two industrial shocks: Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 and Bombardier’s sell-off of its flagship CSeries in 2020. Surprisingly, in the wake of the two radical disruptions, the cluster fared quite well in terms of employment and export performance. Using the method of abductive reasoning to find a-matter-of-course explanation of the surprising case, we observe that a low speed of aircraft development and production – a low industry clockspeed – stabilizes local production and knowledge networks through five mechanisms: long-term contracting, R&D cost sharing, production planning, social networking, and technology solidifying. Inspired from the case, we theoretically explore how fast (e. g., fashion and cellphones or the hare) and low (e. g., shipbuilding and aerospace or the tortoise) industry clockspeeds lead to different configurations of firm relations and are thus associated with different types of economic resilience.

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  • Li Pengfei & Turkina Ekaterina & Van Assche Ari, 2022. "The Tortoise and the Hare: Industry Clockspeed and Resilience of Production and Knowledge Networks in Montréal’s Aerospace Industry," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 66(2), pages 81-95, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:zfwige:v:66:y:2022:i:2:p:81-95:n:4
    DOI: 10.1515/zfw-2021-0062
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