Ownership, organisation and industrial linkage: A case study in the Northern Region of England

Marshall J. N. (1979) Ownership, organisation and industrial linkage: a case study in the Northern Region of England, Reg. Studies 13, 531–557. The paper examines the significance for regional economic development of the material, service and contact linkages of manufacturing establishments. Using data drawn primarily from a survey of 92 manufacturing plants in the Northern Region of the United Kingdom, the paper considers the extent to which differing types of establishment possess local suppliers and markets. The primary focus is the importance of establishment ownership as an explanation for differences in linkage patterns. This variable and others are used to predict material, business service and communication flows. It is concluded that externally owned establishments in the North are important to the regional economy because such plants do purchase and sell a substantial amount of their material goods in the region. In contrast externally owned establishments have little impact on the region's service sector due to their non-regional business service linkages. It is also suggested that managerial access to business information is a determinant of differences in the performance of locally and externally owned establishments.