Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Spatial Dynamics of the U.S. Investment - Management Industry

9305714埃里克森在过去几十年里，美国生产性服务业就业的巨大增长导致了对生产性服务业活动地点的研究激增。生产性服务业区位的一般理论一直在发展，近年来特别关注关于市场规模、集聚经济、劳动力成本和质量、基础设施和便利设施等因素的相对重要性和影响的两种不同观点。一种观点认为，许多生产性服务业的知识密集型性质需要频繁的面对面接触和复杂的电信设备，这些设备通常出现在密度较高的城市集中地区。另一种观点认为，生产性服务业追随商品生产部门的企业，被吸引到城市中心以外的低成本地点。这个博士论文项目将考察一组公司过去十年的空间动态，这组公司是美国投资管理行业。将特别注意审查公司及其资产的空间分布，评估通信和信息处理技术对地点趋势的影响，并查明影响不同类型公司地点的因素。一次和二次数据将被用来研究1983、1987、1990和1993年投资管理行业的选址模式和结构，公司领导人的邮寄问卷将从影响他们选址决策的因素中引出。后续访谈将更深入地探讨重要问题，特别是通过电信链接传输信息在多大程度上已成为面对面交流的可行替代品。这一特定行业的研究将有助于形成关于生产者服务区位的新兴知识体系，并将为进一步分析电信技术和基础设施对金融服务空间集中度的影响提供基础。作为博士论文改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。***

9305714 ERICKSON The tremendous growth of producer-services employment in the United States in the last few decades has resulted in a proliferation of research on the location of producer-service activities. General theories of producer-services locations have been evolving, with special attention in recent years given to two divergent perspectives regarding the relative importance and impact of factors like market size, agglomeration economies, labor costs and quality, infrastructure, and amenities. One perspective holds that the knowledge-intensive nature of many producer services requires frequent face-to-face contact and sophisticated telecommunications equipment usually found in higher-density urban concentrations. The other perspective posits that producer services follow firms in the goods-producing sector and gravitate to lower-cost sites outside higher-ordered urban centers. This doctoral dissertation project will examine the spatial dynamics over the last decade of one set of firms, the U.S. investment-management industry. Special attention will be given to examining the spatial distribution of firms and their assets, to assessing the impact of communications and information- handling technologies on locational tendencies, and to identifying the factors that account for the location of different types of firms. Both primary and secondary data will be used to examine the pattern and structure of investment- management industry location in 1983, 1987, 1990, and 1993, and a mail questionnaire will elicit from leaders of firms factors that influence their locational decisions. Follow-up interviews will explore important issues in greater depth, especially the extent to which information transfer via telecommunications links has become a viable substitute for face-to-face communications. This industry-specific research will contribute to the emerging body of knowledge about producer-services location, and it will provide the basis for furthe ring analyses of the impacts of telecommunication technologies and infrastructure on the spatial concentration of financial services. As a doctoral dissertation improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. ***