Linkages between Manufacturing Industry and Business Services

Abstract

Manufacturing industry demand for business services is examined in the British city regions of Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester. A postal survey of selected industries considers the impact of a number of industrial and organisational determinants of spatial variations in manufacturing service demands. The study suggests that external control is not the only important predictor of service linkage; previous research has neglected the influence of spatial differences in the supply of services on the pattern of manufacturing industry demand. Research relating variations in the supply of business service activities to differences in regional economic growth is critically reviewed. It is suggested that the economic growth of provincial regions could be improved by expanding key services in selected provincial centres at differing levels of the urban hierarchy.