Joining Global Aerospace Value Networks: Lessons for Industrial Development Policies

Governmental investments on the development of high-tech clusters are among the main policies for socioeconomic development, enabling countries to be part of global value networks. Our objective is to identify which are the strategies of countries that want to join global aerospace value networks, by means of an abductive case research. Countries were divided in 3 groups (A; B: C) according to their global aerospace exports share. The analytical framework used to identify the strategies has 3 dimensions: network structure, network governance, and network dynamics. Results show different strategies according to the country's global exports share. While for countries in group A (exports above 1%), a strategy focused on the dimension network structure indicated a sustained high-tech sector. Countries in group C tend to focus on specialization, taking advantage of shifts in technological paradigms to upgrade their development level. The dimension network governance is mainly related to governmental efforts toward the creation of clusters and associations, promoting specialization and collaborative work. Finally, the dimension network dynamics describes the attraction of foreign companies to qualify the clusters at countries who belong to group C, while countries at group A reinforce their research and development activities. The comparison between countries is helpful for governmental representatives who want to develop strategies toward increasing participation in an industrial global value network and for supply chain managers to help selecting the locations for their operations. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.