Business Service Offices in British Provincial Cities: Location and Control

There are only a few studies of business service activities and most have concentrated on the behaviour of these activities in large cities. By taking a wider cross section of urban areas, this study explores some possible sources of variation in the role of business services in local economies with particular reference to the location and control of these services. Low-growth cities with a large proportion of their business services under external control show a limited amount of new-firm formation since indigenous firms are outnumbered by about two to one. Nonindigenous firms are significantly more likely to set up new branches or to relocate existing ones. The ratio of indigenous to nonindigenous business services in each urban area is significant for the location, status, function, and other changes reported by establishments. Many of these changes are a response to market adjustment or a need to ‘colonize’ new areas. The types of change, particularly of location, are also significantly related to office function. Provincial business services have shown a propensity to expand their employment, but this may only reflect the general trend since 1975. The role of London as the location of headquarters controlling provincial business services is far from dominant.