Environmental and science-based producer services: Location and linkages.

摘要

Focusing upon science based producer services in the United States the dissertation considers whether, as knowledge producing industry, firms are liberated from the locational constraints of production, or are part of a new network of inter-industry linkages. Two levels of analysis are used. At the aggregate level Census of Service Industry data are used to demonstrate patterns of agglomeration, by State and MSA from 1972 to 1982. Regression analysis is then used to identify the socioeconomic characteristics of MSAs which are associated with the agglomeration of science-based producer services. The dissertation includes the results of a nationwide telephone survey of 200 environmental engineering and commercial testing establishments undertaken in the summer of 1988. Analysis of the data collected in the survey indicates that the location of environmental engineering and commercial testing firms is constrained by a network of inter-industry linkages. This network does not stem from material flows as in manufacturing industry, but arises from a web of non-tangible contacts and information flows which are an essential prerequisite for service provision. Preeminent amongst these linkages is the necessity for frequent and non-routine face-to-face contacts in the process of service provision. The research demonstrates that the public sector often has a pivotal role in the network of inter-industry linkages. This is due both to the size of the market which the public sector provides and also, to the increasingly elaborate regulatory framework at all levels of government.