Producer Services Development Processes

在过去的二十年里，生产或中间业务，服务部门一直是就业增长最具活力的部门之一，预计这一趋势将持续到可预见的未来。在国家一级，以前的研究提供了对生产性服务业就业变化的总体空间格局的见解，但缺乏在个别机构一级的工作。关于生产性服务企业在这一快速全面增长时期如何发展的资料很少。当前的企业动力学理论模型来源于对经济中制造业部门的研究；缺乏研究表明生产性服务业的行为是否与工业企业不同或相同。该项目将通过对地理和行业差异样本的调查研究来检验提出的一些理论假设，以解释这些服务的增长。它将试图澄清外部化进程和公司内部不断变化的劳动分工的相对重要性，记录提供服务方式中的技术变化，审查信息技术的作用，分析灵活生产系统的性质，并解释服务销售地点的变化。大多数关于美国经济结构调整的空间方面的研究都集中在工业部门。这项调查将为目前关于生产性服务业发展基础的理论论证提供急需的检验。它将提供关于公司一级发展过程的基本知识，并将有助于拟订与服务业有关的必要地点理论。这个项目的结果也将为公共政策提供资料，说明在较小和外围地区以服务代替承包资源工业的可行性。

The producer, or intermediate business, services sector has been one of the most dynamic in terms of job growth over the past twenty years, and this trend is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. At a national level, previous research has provided insights into aggregate spatial patterns of employment change in the producer services, but work at the level of individual establishments has been lacking. Little information exists on how producer services firms have developed in this period of rapid overall growth. Current theoretical models of firm dynamics derive from research on manufacturing sectors of the economy; there is a paucity of research to indicate whether the producer services behave differently or the same as industrial firms. This project will test a number of theoretical hypotheses put forward to explain the growth of these services through survey research on a geographically and industrially differentiated sample of establishments. It will attempt to clarify the relative importance of externalization processes and the changing division of labor within firms, document changes in technology in the mode of provision of services, examine the role of information technologies, analyze the nature of flexible production systems, and explain changes in the locations where services are sold. Most research on spatial aspects of the restructuring of the US economy have concentrated on industrial sectors. This investigation would provide badly needed tests of current theoretical arguments regarding the bases of development of producer services. It would provide basic knowledge of development processes at the level of the firm, and it would contribute to formulation of necessary location theory related to services industries. The results of this project would also inform public policy regarding the feasibility of services as substitutes for contracting resource-based industry in smaller and peripheral locations.