Regions, Industrial Dominance, and Business Success: An Inquiry into the Geography of Economic Adjustment, Flexibility, and Competitiveness

地区、产业主导地位和商业成功：经济调整、灵活性和竞争力地理的探究

• 批准号: 0423900
• 负责人: Edward Feser
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-08-01 至 2009-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0423900&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Regions; Industrial; Dominance; Business; Success

Regions, Industrial Dominance, and Business Success:An Inquiry into the Geography of Economic Adjustment, Flexibility and CompetitivenessEdward FeserUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignThis study will investigate the relationship between concentrated regional corporate structure-the dominance of a given regional industry by one or a few large firms-and regional business adaptability and performance. The research will test the idea that firms in regions in specific industries dominated by few very large businesses tend to be less productive than firms in the same industries in regions characterized by less corporate dominance and greater organizational diversity. The theory is that corporate dominance in a specific location limits local firms' ability to deploy and adjust workforce, capital, and other inputs to maximum advantage. In effect, corporate organizational structure is a mechanism which can lock regions into a particular set of industrial competencies. As markets evolve and technology changes, those competencies-once key economic assets-may become liabilities. Detrimental "lock-in" effects are minimized or avoided to the degree that adjustment via improvements in efficiency, adoption of new technology, new business growth and entrepreneurial activity are maximized. The project research design involves the use of micro-level data from the U.S. Census' Longitudinal Research Database (LRD) to construct an index of regional corporate dominance and to estimate establishment-level production functions for selected U.S. manufacturing industries. The research also includes case studies of selected industries and regions.While the study will make important contributions to the intellectual understanding of economic change and its manifestation at the regional scale, it also has practical significance. Knowledge of why certain cities and regions are able to adapt more quickly than others to national and global economic forces is critical for good urban planning as well as national policy formation. Urban planners need such information to develop improved methods for predicting economic change and its impacts on urban services and infrastructure while federal officials need a better understanding of the likely implications of policies that affect the competitiveness of specific sectors and regions. This study is particularly timely in the face of the slow job growth following the 2001 recession. Many U.S. regions are facing major workforce dislocation as labor-intensive industries migrate to Latin America, Asia and other low-cost locations. The most affected U.S. regions, particularly the smaller ones, are often "one company towns" that must remake themselves in a world of heightened global competition. Policy makers require a better understanding of the factors that limit or enhance regions' capacity to adjust and adapt to national and global economic shifts.

区域、产业优势和商业成功：对经济调整、灵活性和竞争力的地理探究本研究将调查集中型区域企业结构——由一家或几家大公司主导特定区域产业——与区域企业适应性和绩效之间的关系。该研究将检验这样一种观点，即在特定行业由少数大型企业主导的地区，企业的生产率往往低于企业主导程度较低、组织多样性较大的地区相同行业的企业。该理论认为，企业在特定地区的主导地位限制了当地企业部署和调整劳动力、资本和其他投入以获得最大优势的能力。实际上，公司组织结构是一种机制，它可以将地区锁定为一套特定的产业能力。随着市场的发展和技术的变化，这些能力——曾经的关键经济资产——可能会变成负债。有害的“锁定”效应被尽量减少或避免到通过提高效率、采用新技术、新的业务增长和企业活动而进行的调整达到最大限度的程度。项目研究设计包括使用来自美国人口普查纵向研究数据库（LRD）的微观层面数据来构建区域企业主导指数，并估计选定的美国制造业的企业层面生产函数。该研究还包括对选定行业和地区的案例研究。本研究不仅对认识经济变化及其在区域尺度上的表现具有重要的理论意义，而且具有现实意义。了解为什么某些城市和地区能够比其他城市和地区更快地适应国家和全球经济力量，对于良好的城市规划和国家政策的形成至关重要。城市规划者需要这些信息来改进预测经济变化及其对城市服务和基础设施的影响的方法，而联邦官员则需要更好地了解影响特定部门和地区竞争力的政策可能产生的影响。在2001年经济衰退后就业增长缓慢的情况下，这项研究显得尤为及时。随着劳动密集型产业向拉丁美洲、亚洲和其他低成本地区迁移，美国许多地区正面临严重的劳动力错位。受影响最严重的美国地区，尤其是较小的地区，往往是“一家公司的城镇”，它们必须在全球竞争加剧的世界中重塑自己。决策者需要更好地了解限制或增强区域调整和适应国家和全球经济变化能力的因素。