New Manufacturing firms and regional development: Some evidence from the Northern Region

Johnson P. S. and Cathcart D. G. (1979) New Manufacturing firms and regional development: some evidence from the Northern Region, Reg. Studies 13, 269–280. This paper analyses the role of entirely new firms formed in manufacturing in the Northern Region in recent years. The paper shows that such businesses have made a relatively small direct contribution to employment in the region, although their indirect effects are harder to identify. Mobile plants new to the region appear to be relatively poor incubators for potential founders. Most founders form businesses in the same industrial sector in which they were previously employed, although there is some movement between sub-sectors and from outside the region and manufacturing. New firms are unlikely to provide the major channel for self-sustaining growth in the Northern Region, but they should remain as one important component of regional policy.