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markets. The peripheries are not ignored by these strategies but remain marginal
because of their weak cohesion networks. On the other hand, strong relations
between distant cities form the heart of the automobile network. The heterogeneous
spatial strategy of the motor industry makes it possible to combine the specific
advantages of the territories through strategies to minimize costs, due to connections
between distant cities. This economic strategy diffuses capital and expertise more
widely globally and contributes to an international division of labor by creating
competition among cities at a global scale.
Above, we discussed the table of the ten most important cities by sector
(Table
10.3
). On a global scale, the five largest cities for the agro-food industry
are situated in Europe, with a disproportionate ratio in London because it is
unambiguously superior for the administrators of this sector. A second pole is
distinguishable in North America. New York presents the same advantages as
London but on a North American platform. Chicago is the headquarters of Kraft
Foods, and Mexico City controls activities for all the Latin America.
For the three firms of the automotive sector, Europe stands out because PSA and
Fiat have their primary markets there. In the United States, Wilmington (situated
in the tax haven of Delaware, which is between Washington DC and Baltimore) is
the American pole of the activities of Fiat. On the Asian side, Nagoya is the most
important city for Toyota, which holds numerous production units in Bangkok and
Tianjin, near Beijing.
10.5
Conclusion
This spatial and multilevel analysis investigates the economic and spatial di-
mensions of multinational corporations by placing them in our three-dimensional
system, which comprises economic environment, governance, and territory (
Porter
,
1986
;
Rozenblat
,
2004
). These dimensions determine the territorial embeddedness
of the firms and the territorial development. Two main types of economic strate-
gies appear: market-oriented strategies for firms of the agro-food industry and
production-oriented strategies for the companies of the motor industry.
Thus, we were able to underline the way each branch of industry constrains the
organization of the firms, which results from two geographical types of division:
A geographical division where the localization and the connections between the
subsidiaries of the agro-food industry respect the broad outlines of the regional
markets;
A division of labor based on globalization at the world level, placing specialized
cities in competition for the companies of the automotive sector. The original
aspect of our work is the scale of the inter-urban range. We explain how firms
of the agro-food industry tend to gather in the most powerful cities, and how the
companies of the automotive sector join in medium-sized and specialized cities.
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