Establishment Migration: An Analytical Framework

Despite significant advances in spatial interaction methodology and modelling, the analysis of establishment migration has exhibited only limited progress. In particular, such analysis has concentrated on approximating movement by a continuous probability process. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to illustrate the fact that establishment relocation is, and can be, more appropriately modelled as a discrete distribution process; second, to examine the rationale and performance of a standard unconstrained gravity model applied to industrial migration data in the United Kingdom. Evidence suggests that both the discrete probability process and the gravity model framework provide a foundation for the continued empirical investigation of establishment migration patterns.