Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/333199 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] ZFW - Advances in Economic Geography [ISSN:] 2748-1964 [Volume:] 69 [Issue:] 1 [Year:] 2025 [Pages:] 24-40
Publisher: 
De Gruyter, Berlin
Abstract: 
This paper examines how aerospace clusters help shape the innovation dynamics of aerospace manufacturers in the environmental transition to develop sustainable commercial aircraft. It intersects the economic geography, innovation, and sustainability literatures to develop a theoretical framework about the conditions that facilitate such a transition, and uses the case of two major aerospace clusters, Montreal and Toulouse, as a testing ground. Using a mixed-methods approach combining social network analysis and a series of interviews with some of the key actors in each cluster, the main findings of the study highlight a major difference between the two clusters: while in Toulouse the transition towards sustainability is a top-down approach orchestrated by the crucial role of public authorities, in Montreal the transition is a bottom-up one initiated by an active group of actors from aerospace firms and university research centers. The study also suggests some paradoxical outcomes of collaboration and competition between the two aerospace clusters during this process of environmental transition. Our study aims to contribute new insights to the literature on sustainability transitions in clusters and to develop implications for cluster research and policy-making.
Subjects: 
aerospace clusters
collaboration and competition between clusters
social network analysis
sustainability
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.