A System Review and the Enlightenment of International Research on the Aircraft Industry Technological Innovation Using Bibliometrics Method

The research on technological innovation in aircraft industry has formed a rich knowledge system. Bibliometric analysis of the relevant literature can help us to reveal the evolution process of this research field and to understand the general law of the aircraft industry technology development and characteristics of countries in different economic development level, which can clarify the direction of the technology development of the aircraft industry in China. In this paper, bibliometrics, keyword clustering and content analysis are used to review the technological innovation of the international aircraft industry. The results reveal the following aspects. Firstly, comparing with other high-tech industries, the aircraft industry technological innovation has its own unique characteristics in the key influencing factors, technology spillover mode and technology breakthrough path. The development road of typical countries’ aircraft industry is also different from each other. Secondly, there are two paths for technological development of the aircraft industry: one is technological path dependence; the other one is technological path breakthrough. What path is chosen depends on the industrial value chain position of the firm and the competitive environment it faces. Thirdly,the prerequisites for entry of backward countries into the international aircraft industry are government investment and purchases. Path breakthrough is the only way for backward countries to upgrade the position of aircraft industrial value chain. Besides, domestic market demand is the necessary guarantee for backward countries to obtain the assembly capacity of the whole fuselage.