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Paris for Unilever and London and Amsterdam for Kraft Foods. Furthermore,
we notice that the spatial organization of each of these firms creates “cliques”
among cities belonging to cohesive economic systems. In every example,
the cities belonging to the European Union form a distinct group where the
interurban relations are denser than in the remainder of the network. This spatial
organization is particularly visible within the group Nestlé (European origin)
and to a lesser extent in the governance of the group Kraft Foods (American
origin). Worldwide, we observe globally a respect for the urban hierarchy in very
different areas of markets.
On the other hand, the logics of production that we find throughout the
automotive sector grant an important place for medium-sized cities: PSA is
heavily localized in Coventry or Sarrebruck; Toyota, in the cities of Mjolby and
Vantaa; and Fiat, in the cities of Wilmington (which is an international tax haven)
and Ulm. More than agglomeration economies, the motor industry requires space
and a labor pool.
In the automobile sector, the city to city relationships across national borders
(which represent a strong constraint in the agro-food sector) increase the importance
of long-range relations, such as Bratislava-Mexico City-Seoul at PSA; Sydney-
Kariya-Mjolby-Brussels at Toyota or London-Shanghai-Zedelgem at FIAT. In this
production-oriented strategy, relations between specialized cities cross national
borders and integrate cities worldwide (Figs.
10.4
and
10.5
).
We can thus define various spatial types of organizations:
Logics of market within the agro-food framework, with relations contained
within preset international frameworks. These spatial organizations respect the
urban hierarchies and strengthen existing links between cities belonging to the
same economic bloc.
Logics of production of the automotive sector, where the specialized subsidiaries
rely on localized territorial skills to strengthen or create relations between distant
specialized cities.
According to the economic strategies adopted by the governances of the firms,
we see that the firms look for different territorial skills and aim to utilize them in an
original way within their network. Now the question is how these different networks
affect the territories.
10.4
Competition Between Cities in Corporate Networks
By their choice of location, firms develop and stabilize their competitiveness.
They find within territories the useful resources for their development, and
through economies of agglomeration, they stimulate those resources. Moreover,
economies of agglomeration result from cooperation between economic actors
who unite infrastructure and information needs, guaranteeing their competitiveness.
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