The Geographical Formation of International Management Centres in Europe

Abstract

International management centres are based on production-control functions . Control functions comprise headquarters as bases of operation and beachheads co-ordinating foreign branches and subsidiaries . Bases of operations and beachheads are sustained by advanced business services, financial and real estate services and corporate services . These activities make up an economic formation. Transport, communication facilities, internationally oriented office locations and specific amenities enable the formation to function smoothly . The spatial and social structures of many city regions are strongly affected by the development of these international management centres. Segmentation processes in the housing and labour markets can be related to these formations of management activities.

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

“…An important part of this has been to understand how spatial concentrations of corporations contribute to the formation of national or international management centres and the role that these play in shaping national and global economies (Goodwin, 1965;Abler et al, 1971;Taylor and Thrift, 1982). As Bosman and de Smidt (1993) have suggested, the emergence of company 'management' during the early 20th century saw an increasing concentration of these activities in large cities, as opposed to being co-located with production activities (see also Chandler, 1977). In large part, this reflects the strategic advantages of being located in large urban centres, including improved access to political networks, communication and transport hubs, specialist services and financial institutions (Hanna, 1983).…”

“…While the study of the geography of corporate control in national urban systems became unfashionable during the 1980s, in part reflecting the growing complexity of corporations and the economy (Walker, 1989) and in part the increasing focus on global centres of control (Friedmann, 1986), it is clear that corporate headquarters continue to play an important role in national urban systems (Hayward, 1996;Testa, 2006). The recent work of Taylor (2004Taylor ( , 2005Taylor ( , 2007 on world cities has shown how corporate activity is often channelled through global command centres into national systems (see also Bosman and de Smidt, 1993;Yeung et al, 2001;Taylor et al, 2009). At the same time, it is clear that, within large national systems, the spatial organisation of corporate headquarters plays a critical role in shaping local and regional development (Holloway and Wheeler, 1991;Chan et al, 1995;Carroll, 2001;Quark, 2007;Klier, 2006).…”

“…The second is the importance of large metropolitan areas as transport and communication hubs facilitating the ready assembly of executives, decision-makers and key informants for the face-to-face meetings that remain pivotal within the modern business environment (Bosman and de Smidt, 1993). Despite the emergence of information technology and 'virtual meetings', cities remain the locus of the face-to-face real networks identified in the earlier work of scholars such as Tornqvist (1968) and Pred (1977).…”

Montanhas em um mundo plano: porque a proximidade ainda importa para a localização da atividade econômica

“…Como Castells (1996) indica, neste "espaço de fluxos" gerado pela globalização, as grandes áreas metropolitanas se tornam os nós na rede global de finanças e negócios. Desse modo, embora os avanços na tecnologia e na desregulamentação possam permitir que a atividade econômica ocorra virtualmente em todos os lugares, a realidade é que esta noção de "todos os lugares" é representada por um número relativamente limitado de luga-res em áreas diferentes do mundo, onde as corporações globais se localizam, gerando uma concentração urbana do capital e das estruturas de tomada de decisões ainda maiores (Sassen, 1990;O'Brien, 1992;Hall, 1993;Castells, 1998), assim como uma maior concentração das sedes das empresas (Bosman & De Schmidt, 1993), e uma relação ainda mais próxima entre o poder econômico e o poder político (Rodríguez-Pose, 1998, p.81).…”

Globalization of Economic Activity and the Changing Landscape of Kuala Lumpur Central Planning Area

“…These are actually beacheads often established in order to be able to offer major clients full service. Once the beacheads are established, the banks have the possibility of diversifying its activities through penetration of the local markets (Bosman and de Smidt, 1993). It is worth noting also that at least 5 national banks headquartered in Kuala Lumpur have branches in foreign countries.…”