It's not true that there's no market pressure on Boeing. It's true that Airbus' production capacity limitations have blunted the impact of the QA issues on Boeing's financial performance, but Boeing is in fact suffering. They've been suffering for at least a year (their net profit margin has been 0 or lower for the last 4 quarters). Their stock price is down ~20% from a year ago, and is down ~35% from their high from just before the Air Alaska incidence.
The problem isn't that management assumed that there would be no market pressure, the problem is that management assumed that engineering and production excellence "just happens". They're not dumb enough to believe that shoddy products won't effect their financial position - they just don't know how to make non-shoddy products while also posting decent financials.
The problem isn't that management assumed that there would be no market pressure, the problem is that management assumed that engineering and production excellence "just happens". They're not dumb enough to believe that shoddy products won't effect their financial position - they just don't know how to make non-shoddy products while also posting decent financials.