Fragmentation Strategies and the Rise of Small Units: Cases from the North West

Shutt, John; Whittington, Richard

doi:10.1080/00343408712331344218

Cited by 87 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Shutt and Whittington (1987) suggest that the fragmentation strategies of large firms are leading to the enhancement of the employment shift from large urban to smaller urban and rural areas.…”

Section: Techniques and Research Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Local Economic Development and the City

Bovaird

1992

Urban Studies

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Section: Techniques and Research Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Local Economic Development and the City

Bovaird

1992

Urban Studies

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“…Also, there is a growing body of evidence which suggests that manufacturing has undergone a selective externalization of specialized service functions (Scott, 1986). By now, many of the technical activities that were once performed inside the manufacturing sector have been delegated to independent firms in the service domain (Krmenec and Esparza, 1990;Schutt and Whittington, 1987). Vertical disintegration of this sort has been described in terms of a broader process, of industrial restructuring in which major cost-savings are achieved through a progressively finer division of labor between firms, industries, and sectors (Walker, 1985).…”

Section: Research Contextmentioning

confidence: 98%

Optimum Producer-Service Location

1992

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Presented in this paper is a formal economic model that identifies the optimal intraurban location for a producer-service vendor that caters to the technical needs of spatially dispersed clients in the manufacturing sector. Two major components are incorporated into the model. The first of these describes the oft-cited externalization process among industrial firms, where in-house service provision is selectively abandoned in favor of out-sourcing. The second component describes a vendor location process based on profit maximization, where buyers and sellers are optimally located relative to one another. Normative modeling propositions are then compared with current empirical streams in the literature on producer-service location, the role of manufacturing demand, and the process of selective vertical disintegration among industrial firms. The paper is concluded with a brief research agenda for modeling the intraurban locational behavior of specialist firms in the producer services.

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“…franchising) and disintegration (e.g. subcontracting) (Shutt and Whittington, 1987;Curran, 1990). This represented a transfer of jobs from large organisations to SMEs.…”

Section: Small Business Revivalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This understanding of supply chains relates to Rainnie's conceptualisation of the difference between SMEs dependent on large businesses (e.g. sub-contractors) and those relatively independent, either because they compete through the hyper-exploitation of labour or because they operate in specialist niches (developing Shutt and Whittington, 1987). Rainnie argues that, in these ways, the external environment can constrain both traditional ideas of independence and owner-manager prerogative as well as the scope for employees to contest the ways they are managed or negotiate better working conditions.…”

Section: Supply Chains and Sme Dependencymentioning

confidence: 99%