Corporate Headquarters Relocation and Changes in Metropolitan Corporate Dominance, 1980-1987

Abstract

During the last 30 years, U.S. metropolitan economies have experienced tremendous restructuring, and the locations of corporate headquarters have increasingly exhibited spatial shifts, both deconcentrating and dispersing. Theoretical explanations have suggested that the United States is entering the third of four stages, in which we are now witnessing the drive to regional maturity with no dominant regional center. Changes in the distribution of metropolitan corporate dominance between 1980 and 1987 are examined and related to two sets of explanatory frameworks, one spatial and the other structural. Changes in metropolitan corporate dominance were strongly related to spatial shifts in headquarters and asset location, especially shifts due to merger and acquisition activity. Changes in dominance were less strongly related to structural factors reflecting the degree of transition to the emerging service-based economy, even though population and location relative to New York were important. Finally, the effe...