Producer Services Development Processes

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.