Corporate Location, Concentration and Performance: Large Company Headquarters in the Australian Urban System

Abstract

The paper examines the geography of corporate headquarters in the Australian urban system, giving consideration to their location, control of capital and performance. The paper argues that, while considerable recent attention has been given to global cities in the networks of corporate power, the spatial organisation of company headquarters remains important within national urban systems. In the case of Australia, Sydney and Melbourne dominate the corporate landscape, although the smaller cities of Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth occupy important niches. The paper demonstrates that there are clear variations in the relative performance of companies across the Australian urban system. There is also a pattern of sectoral specialisation within Australia's cities which, in part, helps to explain the different development trajectories and relative levels of corporate performance. The paper concludes by exploring some of the implications of the study for the understanding of urban systems.

Spatial Distribution Pattern of the Headquarters of Listed Firms in China

“…They choose to gather in only a few larger metropolitan cities and set up close to each other to facilitate the sharing of common inputs and the same labor market, in addition to enjoying information spillover [14,[27][28][29]. For example, Sydney and Melbourne accounted for 44.2% and 27.8% of the headquarters of the largest 300 listed firms in Australia in 2010 [30]. On the other hand, due to the growing cost of operating in CBDs and the development of information and communications technology, some firms have moved their headquarters outside of urban centers [31].…”

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“…Urban amenities certainly play a major role in the preference of high-order functions for the CBD (Todtling, Lehner and Trippl 2006;Tonts and Taylor 2010;Wu 2003), which is closely related to prestige and place symbolism. The analysis by Castells (1989) shows that the CBD has a concentration of APS firms, and that the reasons for this lie in the need for face-to-face contact, a business social milieu with a unique culture, a prestigious location, existing office stock, and available ancillary services.…”

Competitiveness, Migration, and Mobility in the Global City: Insights from Sydney, Australia

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