Breandán Ó hUallacháin

Acquisition versus Greenfield Investment: The Location and Growth of Japanese Manufacturers in the United States

O´ HUALLACHA´IN B. and REID N. (1997) Acquisition versus greenfield investment: the location and growth of Japanese manufacturers in the United States, Reg. Studies 31, 403‐416. Investigating foreign direct investment by principal modes of entry helps explain the location of Japanese manufacturers in the United States. Japanese greenfield start-ups and acquired plants had distinct interregional distributions in different decades. We use ordinary least squares and tobit regression analyses to account for interstate variation in the levels of Japanese acquired and greenfield establishment in 1979, 1989 and 1992 and their expansion in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. The greenfield plants propelled the formation of automobile-based industrial complexes in the Midwest and Southeast regions. Greenfield investors also avoided states with strong unions and, over time, they became unconstrained by the general distribution of American manufacturing. Although supplies of procurable assets consistently constrained ...

Spatial Convergence and Spillovers in American Invention

Abstract Endogenous growth theory places spatial knowledge spillovers at the center of national technological progress. Advances in spatial autocorrelation and regression analyses provide methods to assess the influence of these spillovers on the geographical distribution and growth of invention. This article investigates interstate inequality and convergence in per capita patenting in the United States in the period 1963–2003. We analyze both the complete forty years and trends in ten-year intervals. Morans I reveals spatial dependence in patenting levels and growth, and LISA cluster maps identify regional groupings of leading and trailing states. Our regression results show that both regional effects and spatial spillovers influence convergence rates, which were low and steady in the thirty years before 1993. In the subsequent decade, patenting expansion concentrated in a few states, inequality increased, and divergence ensued. Western states, in general, and the Pacific Northwest, in particular, increasingly dominate patent growth. Rank order correlation analyses show that convergence before 1993 was driven by catch-up and not by leapfrogging. A final regression analysis shows that patent growth rates in the 1993–2003 interval were higher in more rural states and in those with high proportions of payrolls generated by high-technology manufacturing and producer services industries. States in the South significantly lagged. Our results support the hypothesis that creative skilled professionals seek to reside in states that offer both well-paying jobs in high-technology manufacturing and producer services sectors and easy access to rural outdoor recreation and leisure amenities.

Linkages and Foreign Direct Investment in the United States

The intraregional material linkages of a sample of foreign-owned plants in the U.S. are examined. Strong dependence on the domestic economy is revealed at both regional and national levels. Degree of domestic integration is found to be related to a variety of technological, market entry, nationality, and size characteristics of the plants.

Producer Services in the Urban Core and Suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona

Recent research shows growing concentration of corporate decision-making functions in metropolitan cores and strong relationships between managerial activities and producer services. The paper investigates the location of 12 disaggregated producer service sectors in Phoenix, Arizona. Concentration of legal, accounting and computer services underpin the economy of the inner core. Second-order unweighted and employment-weighted distance-based clustering of establishments in each sector are calculated. Clustering of legal establishments is particularly high and there is a consistent pattern of higher clustering levels among the larger establishments of most sectors. Establishment size in several sectors is inversely related to distance from the centre. These results are interpreted as evidence that large establishments are drawn to central locations to exploit information externalities. Concentration in the inner core, clustering and the sensitivity of establishment size to distance from the CBD are significantly correlated.

THE INTRAMETROPOLITAN LOCATION OF SERVICES IN THE UNITED STATES

In metropolitan areas, firms trade-off land and information costs. Firms that gain the most from access to the knowledge and know-how of other firms in the same sector are willing and able to pay for expensive central city land. We found that legal services, advertising, and accounting and auditing services are the most centralized services in the 74 largest metropolitan areas of the United States. Maps of seven fast-growing business and professional services in Phoenix, Arizona, show that central city services are mainly located in the CBD. Using a logarithmic function, we found that service jobs are more decentralized in the larger metropolitan areas and in metropolitan areas outside the Northeast. Analysis of disaggregate service sectors shows significant intersectoral variation in this relationship.

Foreign Banking in the American Urban System of Financial Organization

AbstractForeign banks in the United States are major sources of investment capital and producers of financial services. Foreign banking is localized in a few metropolises. Six major international banking centers serve as American nodes in the system of global flows of capital and financial services. The asset structure, size, type, and national origins of foreign banks in these centers reveal investment motives. New York is the primary foreign banking complex. The magnitude of its foreign banking segment together with the diversity of bank sizes, nationalities, and types contributes to its distinctiveness. Its traditional role as the focal point of interaction between the securities and the domestic banking industries has been augmented by rapid expansion of foreign banks in the 1980s. In Chicago, foreign banking has grown together with its fast-growing financial markets. Foreign banking in Los Angeles and San Francisco is dominated by Japanese banks, which are mainly engaged in traditional bank lending. ...

POSTINDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING IN A SUNBELT METROPOLIS: WHERE ARE FACTORIES LOCATED IN PHOENIX?

Manufacturing establishments are integral to the spatial structure of fast-growing Sunbelt metropolitan areas, but most concepts and theories of intrametropolitan location were largely developed for an earlier technological era and different spatial contexts. This article investigates the location of nine disaggregated manufacturing sectors in Phoenix, Arizona, showing varying degrees of central core concentration and metropolitan-wide clustering. Distinct sectoral co-location patterns are also evident. We interpret our results as evidence that the intrametropolitan location of postindustrial manufacturing is best understood as a series of spatial distributions with varying concentration, centralization, clustering, and other order-based characteristics. There is little evidence that randomly scattered discrete industrial zones have developed nor that spatial patterns are uniform. Enduring lock-in effects tied to transportation infrastructure are pivotal to understanding the locational distribution of manufacturing industries in metropolitan Phoenix. Results do not support a hypothesis that a positive relationship exists between establishment size and distance from sectoral mean centers.

The role of foreign direct investment in the development of regional industrial systems: Current knowledge and suggestions for a future American research agenda

O hUallachain B. (1985) The role of foreign direct investment in the development of regional industrial systems: current knowledge and suggestions for a future American research agenda, Reg. Studies 20, 151–162. The role of foreign direct investment in American regional industrial systems differs from the experiences found in other countries. Foreign investment in the US is increasing rapidly outside of the traditional industrial heartland, it is highly integrated with the domestic economy and it does not seem to be developing the same truncated character found in other countries. American research should concentrate on the impact increasing foreign investment is having on the technological makeup and total linkage structure of regional economies. Understanding these impacts will require a variety of research approaches ranging from sectoral studies to analysis of individual corporations. This paper attempts to identify research priorities using the knowledge of foreign direct investment generated abroad ...

Spatial Pattern and Order in Sunbelt Retailing: Shopping in Phoenix in the Twenty-First Century

Understanding the complexity of store location in sprawling polycentric cities requires exploitation of new spatial analysis methods that can decipher patterns in georeferenced point data. This article shows how the intrametropolitan location of retailing is best understood as a series of interconnected spatial distributions with varying order-based characteristics. A scattered pattern, which initially appears random or chaotic, is a web of differentiated spatial regimes containing wide-ranging order. A variety of clustering and colocation methods are used to uncover spatial patterns of retailing in Phoenix, Arizona. The analysis simultaneously identifies establishment associations and disassociations within and across sectors. Results show that clothing and motor vehicles are the most likely to cluster next to establishments in the same sector. These sectors also have strong intersectoral relationships across retailing. We find limited evidence that the size of establishments significantly increases with distance from sectoral mean centers. Geospatial technologies are increasingly used by individual retailers to locate and manage their facilities. It is important that scholarly analysis of retailing spatial patterns keeps pace, especially as cities grow and land use and land value patterns become more complex.

Restructuring of Primary Industries: Technology, Labor, and Corporate Strategy and Control in the Arizona Copper Industry*

Industrial restructuring in the primary sector highlights the continued exploitation of economies of scale, vertical integration, and oligopolistic competition. A few large vertically integrated firms wield power and control over material sources and production facilities. Restructuring of the copper industry in Arizona illustrates the interaction of changing corporate strategies and shifting market structures in primary production. A weakening of the global copper oligopoly disrupted supply/demand adjustment mechanisms following a wave of nationalizations of copper producing properties in South America and Africa in the early 1970s. The resultant depression in prices forced firms in Arizona to restructure. Changes in technological processes and labor relations eliminated large numbers of jobs, redefined work processes, crushed union vigor, revitalized labor productivity, and substantially lessened production costs. Firms that survived the reorganization held specialized core skills in copper that compelled and enabled them to restore capital accumulation. They consolidated assets and intensified vertical integration. A long-term strategic objective of international mining companies, including Arizonas copper firms, is to restore the structure of the global copper oligopoly through new investments in Chile and Peru. Realizing this goal is possible due to the reassertion of capitalistic production principles throughout Latin America and the reinvigoration of international mining firms.