Economic Geography

Regional perspectives
The entries, exits and continuing plants of the large firm impact upon individual
regional economies. Indeed, my own initial move from regional economic geog-
raphy in the 1960s to the study of corporate dynamics in the 1970s was driven
by the fact that it was not possible to understand changes in plants within my
region of interest unless one recognised the way in which externally owned plants
fitted within wider corporate structures. The role of such large firms in regional
economies was highlighted in the 1970s, partly as a response to the growth of
large firms themselves but also because it was a politically sensitive issue in
Britain’s Celtic fringes. Politicians in Scotland and Wales became concerned that
many decisions affecting their economies were being taken in England or other
foreign countries. Peripheral regions and countries of the United Kingdom
began to see themselves as branch plant economies (Watts 1981). The impact of
external ownership, which usually meant external control over major investment
decisions, was seen as detrimental to as regional economy. Empirically the evidence
was rather mixed in terms of the opening and closings of plants but there was
clear evidence that external control could impact on the occupational mix of a
region. High-level managerial jobs were often concentrated outside a peripheral
region and, in the context of the United Kingdom, this was in the South East of
the country. In addition, there was strong evidence that research and development
(R&D) expenditures by business also had a southern bias.
Future directions: policy and research
Policy
The research in economic geography on large firms would seem to have at least
two applications. Advising managers (or potential managers) of large firms on the
ways in which variations between places can be exploited and informing policy-
makers concerned with regional change. Knowledges can be diffused in embodied
form by which trained economic geographers emerging from doctoral programme
take up positions outside the discipline of geography. More conventionally, trans-
fers of such knowledge take place through publication in both academic and,
more importantly, practitioner literature. Sadly in the United Kingdom the latter
is not encouraged as activities driven by the UK Research Assessment Exercise
(RAE) place a premium on publication in the academic journals.
Manufacturing, corporate dynamics, and regional economic change
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Advising business mangers (both actual and potential) can be begun by
economic geographers working within and publishing in the field of manage-
ment. Whilst a number of geographers dealing with entrepreneurship, retailing
and/or logistics have moved into the management area this is less common
amongst those geographers with expertise in the manufacturing activities of
larger firms. Nevertheless, my doctoral students whose PhD theses concerned
the behaviour of large multi-regional firms include one who is now head of 
MBA programmes at the University of Hertfordshire and another is a Senior
Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Management at Queen’s University Business
School based in Belfast. Publishing in management journals should also be
encouraged. Research by geographers on plant closures has appeared in journals
such as Management Decision and the International Journal of Manpower and 
it has also been argued that geographical analysis of the nature of greenfield 
sites can inform research in human resource management (Richbell and Watts
2001).
Regional development agencies, whose basic aims often involve maintaining
and creating jobs provide further audiences for our work especially that on
branch plant location, repeat investments and plant closures. Knowledge transfer
through PhD programmes play a part here too. One trend noticeable in the
destinations of my doctoral students is a greater emphasis on employment in
policy related areas. Whereas in the 1970s and 1980s PhD students tended to
enter academic posts the 1990s have seen a greater interest in policy and its appli-
cations. Again using the examples of my own doctoral students, one is now head
of regeneration in a local authority in the West Midlands of England and another
is employed by Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency for part
of the north of England. Certainly doctoral students with quantitative skills seem
to have little difficulty in the policy job market.