György Csomós

European cities as command and control centres, 2006–11

Since the mid-1980s, it has become increasingly popular to research contemporary economic globalization through the lens of cities (see, for instance, Castells, 1996; Friedmann, 1986; Sassen, 1991; Taylor, 2004). One strand of research thereby focuses on the global ‘command-and-control function’ of major cities, which is often measured through the presence of corporate headquarters of major multinational enterprises (MNEs; see, for instance, Alderson and Beckfield, 2004; Godfrey and Zhou, 1999; Taylor et al., 2009). Following this lead, this commentary has three related purposes. First, we aim to take stock of how European cities have fared as global command-and-control centres in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008 and the lingering Euro crisis throughout most of 2011. To this end, we explore the shifting positions of leading European cities in their role as MNE headquarter locations in the period 2006–11. Second, based on an interpretation of our empirical findings, we critically interrogate the conceptual purchase of MNE headquarter location as a measure of the command-and-control function of cities. Third, using Castells’ (1992) work on the ‘Informational City’, we briefly explore the possible long-term consequences for European cities.

Ranking Asia-Pacific cities: Economic performance of multinational corporations and the regional urban hierarchy

Abstract Over the past decade the world economy has undergone significant changes with an impact not only on national economies but also on the key cities from which that world economy is largely being controlled. In this study, we use Forbes’ ‘Global 2000’ data on the headquarter location and size of the world’s leading multinational corporations in order to examine the shifting relative position of leading Asia-Pacific cities as command and control centres in this increasingly important part of the world economy. Comparing cities’ positions in 2006 and 2011, we present that Tokyo, which assumed a leading role in the region for decades, has seen a major decline in its command and control function, while Beijing now represents almost as much as command and control as the Japanese capital. Beijing’s fast growth in command and control is also found for Chinese cities, albeit that Beijing clearly dominates the other Chinese cities. In addition, we present that shifting patterns of command and control also hinge on the sectors dominating the Forbes 2000 ranking.

Analysis of Leading Cities in Central Europe: Control of Regional Economy

Analysis of Leading Cities in Central Europe: Control of Regional Economy Nowadays, one of the characteristic orientations in social science studies focusing on cities is the ranking of cities, as well as the definition of the worlds leading cities (world cities, global cities) on the basis of various criteria. Central European countries are given just a minor role in these researches, particularly in comparison with German cities with their considerable economic performance. This analysis compares the large cities of Austria, Germany and the countries of the Visegrád Group in terms of their role in economic leadership. To this end, the characteristic parameters have been examined: the GDP in purchasing power standards and nominal GDP of the cities, the revenues of large companies found in these cities, as well as the domestic market capitalization of the stock exchanges.

Exploring the position of cities in global corporate research and development: A bibliometric analysis by two different geographical approaches

Global cities are defined, on the one hand, as the major command and control centres of the world economy and, on the other hand, as the most significant sites of the production of innovation. As command and control centres, they are home to the headquarters of the most powerful MNCs of the global economy, while as sites for the production of innovation they are supposed to be the most important sites of corporate research and development (R&D) activities. In this paper, we conduct a bibliometric analysis of the data located in the Scopus and Forbes 2000 databases to reveal the correlation between the characteristics of the above global city definitions. We explore which cities are the major control points of the global corporate R&D (home city approach), and which cities are the most important sites of corporate R&D activities (host city approach). According to the home city approach we assign articles produced by companies to cities where the decision-making headquarters are located (i.e. to cities that control the companies’ R&D activities), while according to the host city approach we assign articles to cities where the R&D activities are actually conducted. Given Sassens global city concept, we expect global cities to be both the leading home cities and host cities.

Modelling the shifting command and control function of cities through a gravity model based bidimensional regression analysis

Since the mid-1980s it has become common to demonstrate the current economic globalization through the lens of cities. Command and control, provided by multinational corporations (MNCs), is an important component of both the world city hypothesis (Friedmann, 1986) and the global city concept (Sassen, 1991). The command-and-control function is often determined on the basis of the location of headquarters or the economic performance (e.g., revenues) of the leading MNCs (Alderson and Beckfield, 2004; Csomós, 2013; Godfrey and Zhou, 1999; Taylor and Csomós, 2012). In this analysis we model the influence of 277 major cities of the global economy on the economic space, from 2006 to 2014. Cities can be regarded as major cities if they have a significant command-and-control function: that is, they host powerful MNCs as measured by revenues (revenues are indicated by Forbes ‘‘The Global 2000’’ from 2006 and 2014). We use a bidimensional regression analysis based on a gravity model to describe the global economic spatial structure [for more information on the model, see Tóth et al. (2014)]. The grid is fitted to the coordinate system of the dependent form and its interpolated modified position makes it possible to further generalize the information about the points of the regression. The black arrows show the direction of movement and the grid shading refers to the nature of the distortion. Areas indicated with white refer to concentration and to movements in the same directions (convergence), which can be considered to be the most important gravitational centres. We find three significant economic zones in the global economic space: Northern America, Western Europe, and East Asia. Northern America: Several economic centres (with the principal role of New York) can be found on the East Coast of the United States; however, cities on the West Coast host an

MAPPING SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL CHANGES OF GLOBAL CORPORATE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES BY CONDUCTING A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS

Abstract Corporate research and development (R&D) activities have long been highly concentrated in a handful of world cities. This is due to the fact that these cities (e.g., Tokyo, New York, London, and Paris) are home to the largest and most powerful transnational corporations and are globally important sites for innovative start-up firms that operate in the fastest growing industries. However, in tandem with the rapid technological changes of our age, corporate R&D activities have shifted towards newly emerging and now globally significant R&D centres, like San Jose, San Francisco, and Boston in the United States, and Beijing, Seoul, and Shenzhen in East Asia. In this paper, I will conduct a bibliometric analysis to define which cities are centres of corporate R&D activities, how different industries influence their performance, and what spatial tendencies characterise the period from 1980 to 2014. The bibliometric analysis is based upon an assumption that implies there is a close connection between the number of scientific articles published by a given firm and the volume of its R&D activity. Results show that firms headquartered in Tokyo, New York, London, and Paris published the largest combined number of scientific articles in the period from 1980 to 2014, but that the growth rate of the annual output of scientific articles was much greater in Boston, San Jose, Beijing, and Seoul, as well as some Taiwanese cities. Furthermore, it can also be seen that those cities that have the largest number of articles; i.e., that can be considered as the most significant sites of corporate R&D in which firms operate in fast-growing industries, are primarily in the pharmaceutical and information technology industries. For these reasons, some mid-sized cities that are home to globally significant pharmaceutical or information technology firms are also top corporate R&D hubs.

Cities as command and control centres of the world economy: An empirical analysis, 2006-2015

Abstract As a result of their rapid economic growth, several powerful corporate giants have emerged in developing countries, especially in China, operating not only in the traditional manufacturing sector, but also in high-tech industries and finance. Major cities in developing countries have gradually become important command and control centres of the global economy, and have also become powerful enough to be in the same tier as major cities of developed countries around the world. In this paper, I examine the position of cities as command and control centres on the basis of the power of their headquartered corporations. The result shows that until 2012, New York, London, Tokyo, and Paris; i.e. the global cities, were the leading command and control centres. However, the gap between these global cities and Beijing gradually closed, and by 2015, the Chinese capital outranked all the global cities. The outstanding performance of Beijing-based corporations that operate in financial, energy, and construction services sectors is the driving force behind Beijing’s increasing global power. In addition, the leading position of the global cities as command and control centres has been threatened by the San Francisco-San Jose metropolitan region, a newly emerging economic hub in the United States.

Mapping the position of cities in corporate research and development through a gravity model-based bidimensional regression analysis

In her seminal work entitled ‘The Global City’, Saskia Sassen (1991) specified New York, London, Tokyo, Frankfurt and Paris as leading examples of global cities. Furthermore, she defined the most important characteristics of global cities (Sassen 2001: 4), one of which is that global cities are major sites of production of innovation. Since Sassen’s global city notion was first introduced, significant changes have occurred in the world economy, which can be characterised by, for example, the massive economic growth of developing countries, especially that of China, and rapid technological changes due to fast-growing industries such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology (Nicolini and Nozza 2008; Dernis et al. 2015; Csomos and Toth 2016a). As a result of these developments, global cities have been continuously losing their privileged position as major sites of production of innovation, and new competitors have emerged in developing countries, even in the home countries of the global cities.

A világvárosok rangsorolása az irányító és ellenőrző funkciójuk alapján, és a formálódó új gazdasági erőközpontok

Contemporary world city/global city literature relies on two main theories: Friedmann’s world city hypothesis and Sassen’s global city concept. However, there is a major difference between these two approaches, i.e. that the former primarily focuses on the concentration of headquarters of transnational corporations when defining world cities, while according to the latter, global cities are the post-industrial focal points of advanced producer service firms and financial service companies. In recent years, the global city theory has become more widespread. As a result, transnational corporations have lost their significance regarding the designation of leading cities in the global economy. On the other hand, a new tendency has emerged: While international financial markets have been ruled by some global cities (e.g. New York, London, Tokyo, and Paris) for decades, in emerging economies powerful transnational manufacturing corporations, even banks have appeared. This process has led to heavy competition on the global markets, primarily in Africa, Latin America and Asia, between companies of developed countries and emerging economies. Beyond the radar, the manufacturing-oriented world economy has been significantly changing similarly to its global control. Furthermore, the financial crisis of 2007–08 negatively affected many financial actors of the developed world, while large Chinese banks rose to the status of global players. The process seems obvious: East Asian, especially Chinese cities are occupying an increasingly important role in the command-and-control of the global economy, while many western cities are fading away. Beijing as a command-and-control centre had already appeared among the New York−London−Tokyo−Paris quartet by 2014, and the Chinese capital can be foreseen to take over the leading position in a short time. Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Delhi and other Southeast Asian metropolises have also shown significant strengthening. However, the west-to-east shift of the command-and-control of the global economy is more sophisticated. In the United States, the San Francisco Bay Area has become the home of many leading information technology firms, such as Apple, Facebook, Google and Intel, making this conurbation one of the most important command-and-control centres in the world. Furthermore, while accepting the fact that the command-and-control function of New York has been declining for years now, second tier cities, such as Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, and Los Angeles, seem to occupy increasingly favourable positions. Japanese cities have not stopped losing positions in East Asia in comparison with China and South Korea, while most cities in the European Union still suffer from the effects of the crisis (except, for example, London, Munich, and Stockholm). In the first part of the paper, cities are ranked on the basis of their global command-andcontrol function in 2006 and in 2014, while in the second part the emerging powerhouses of the global economy are presented by regions.

The Ranking of Cities as Centres of the Hungarian Economy, 1992-2012

This analysis has relied on an empirical method to identify and rank cities as centres of the Hungarian economy from 1992 to 2012. After the change in the political and economic system of Hungary, a new economic climate emerged (e.g. Hungary joined the European Union, foreign direct investments appeared in the economy, special taxation regulations were introduced), which changed the position of cities. During this two-decade-long transformation, the dominance of the capital, Budapest, and its agglomeration considerably increased; the east-west dichotomy became more pronounced, while the economic role of the traditional industrial centres and that of some large cities weakened. Because of these processes, new types of economic centres emerged, which did not have a significant role in the national economy. Cities that became crucial economic actors because of the offshore operation of foreign multinational corporations are exceptional in this. The ultimate goal of this study is to introduce a straightforward urban hierarchy, establish a classification based on the economic profile of cities, and address the typical anomalies after the change in the political system.