Abstract
Aircraft industry is very important to the economy and security of a country, and aircraft industry clusters have already existed in the world. Based on Input-Output data and Czamanski’s method, the aircraft industry clusters in China and USA were identified quantitatively in this paper. Furthermore, this article carried out comparison analyses of the identification results. The research finds out: 1) a mature aircraft industry cluster would be generally composed of 7 industrial subgroups, including aircraft industry, metal making and products manufacturing industry, machinery and equipment industry, electronics industry, automobile industry, material industry and others, and electronics industrial subgroup will play a more and more important role in the cluster; 2) in the range of industry-covering, the level of industry-linkage, and the economic performance, there is a tremendously large gap between the aircraft industry cluster of China and that of USA; 3) the spatial evolution of these clusters or centers is highly consistent with the diffusion of a country’s industrialization. Finally, based on those findings, the paper gives some advice on how to improve Czamanski’s method and what China should do to develop its own competitive aircraft industry: 1) China should employ institutional innovation, and turn to be market-oriented; 2) China should abandon the traditional pattern of closed-development, and strengthen the interaction and collaboration between aircraft industry and related industries, especially the electronics industry; 3) China should rectify and perfect its spatial development planning of aircraft industry.
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Foundation item: Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40635026, 40801050), Knowledge Innovation Programs of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KZCXZ-YW-Q10-4)
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Chu, B., Zhang, H. & Jin, F. Identification and comparison of aircraft industry clusters in China and United States. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 20, 471–480 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-010-0421-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11769-010-0421-5