Economic Geography

particular plant in a particular region. The company would not draw attention to
the fact that despite the fall in demand it was retaining production in other sites
and that the real reason for closure of a particular plant was the high land value of
the site or a perception of a difficult labour force.
Conceptually a link can be made with the branch plant location/acquisition
literature for those cases were a firm was selecting between plants making simi-
lar products. The locational factors which made a location attractive for a branch
plant would (if negative) make a plant attractive for a closure whilst the charac-
teristic which made a plant an attractive feature for acquisition would in reverse
make a plant an attractive candidate for closure. Compared with the analysis of
branch plant locations relatively few studies examined the theoretical and empir-
ical issues arising from plant closures implemented by large multi-regional firms
(Watts and Kirkham 1999; Watts and Stafford 1986). Within geography there has
been little interest in the disposal of businesses, partly one suspects as in the short
term disposal of a business as a going concern may have few job implications.
Continuing
Until quite recently there has been surprisingly little interest in job change 
in plants which neither open nor close during a particular period of time. It is
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H. Doug Watts

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surprising in the sense that studies of components of change often indicate job
changes in plants that continue to exceed those in newly established plants or
plants that close. There are clearly important questions as to why some plants
within a corporate system increase in significance whilst others loose out. A
particular interest at the present time is the concept of ‘repeat investment’
(Phelps and Fuller 2000). Why do some plants attract repeat investment? Why
do others fail to do so?