IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v29y1992i6p857-868.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Producer Services and Systems of Flexible Production

Author

Listed:
  • William J. Coffey

    (Département d'études urbaines, University of Quebec at Montreal)

  • Antoine S. Bailly

    (Département de géographie, University of Geneva, Uni-Mail, 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland)

Abstract

During the decade of the 1980s, regional science began to devote more and more attention to the influence of two phenomena upon the structure and functioning of the space-economy: (1) service activities, in general, and producer services, in particular, and (2) flexible production systems. This paper explores the extent to which these two major preoccupations of contemporary regional science can be integrated, and attempts to contribute to the understanding of the growth and location of producer services by examining the manner in which an analytical framework based upon flexible production may be applied to the latter. The exploration begins with a summary and criticism of the flexible production approach. This is followed by a discussion of the growth of producer services and of the trends towards the increasing externalisation of these activities. Next, the appropriateness of employing a flexible production framework in the case of producer services is examined. The significance of the concept of flexible production for understanding the location of producer services is then explored. Finally, the paper examines the effects upon the labour force of flexibility in the production and use of producer services.

Suggested Citation

  • William J. Coffey & Antoine S. Bailly, 1992. "Producer Services and Systems of Flexible Production," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 29(6), pages 857-868, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:29:y:1992:i:6:p:857-868
    DOI: 10.1080/00420989220080841
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420989220080841
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420989220080841?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frank Moulaert & Erik Swyngedouw & Patricia Wilson, 1988. "Spatial Responses To Fordist And Post‐Fordist Accumulation And Regulation," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(1), pages 11-23, January.
    2. Williamson, Oliver E, 1981. "The Modern Corporation: Origins, Evolution, Attributes," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 1537-1568, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. William B. Beyers, 1996. "Trends in producer services growth in the rural heartland," Monograph, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, number 1996tipsgitr.
    2. Makoto Okumura & Makoto Tsukai, 2014. "Business service location with spatially stochastic demands: agglomeration economies generated by interaction costs and localized uncertain demand – an optimal stock location model approach," Chapters, in: Charlie Karlsson & Börje Johansson & Kiyoshi Kobayashi & Roger R. Stough (ed.), Knowledge, Innovation and Space, chapter 7, pages 160-179, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pasinetti, Luigi L., 2021. "Economic theory and institutions," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 438-442.
    2. T.R.L. Fry & R.D. Brooks & Br. Comley & J. Zhang, 1993. "Economic Motivations for Limited Dependent and Qualitative Variable Models," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(2), pages 193-205, June.
    3. Asmund Rygh & Gabriel R. G. Benito, 2018. "Capital Structure of Foreign Direct Investments: A Transaction Cost Analysis," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 389-411, June.
    4. Casey Ichniowski, 1990. "Human Resource Management Systems and the Performance of U.S. Manufacturing Businesses," NBER Working Papers 3449, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Cordes, Christian & Richerson, Peter J. & Schwesinger, Georg, 2010. "How corporate cultures coevolve with the business environment: The case of firm growth crises and industry evolution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 465-480, December.
    6. Bernholz, Peter, 1997. "Property rights, contracts, cyclical social preferences and the Coase theorem: A synthesis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 419-442, September.
    7. Christian Cordes & Stephan Müller & Georg Schwesinger & Sarianna M. Lundan, 2022. "Governance structures, cultural distance, and socialization dynamics: further challenges for the modern corporation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 371-397, April.
    8. Zoran Stefanovic, Branislav Mitrovic, 2015. "Revisiting New Institutional Economics: Basic Concepts And Research Directions," Ekonomika, Journal for Economic Theory and Practice and Social Issues 2014-04, „Ekonomika“ Society of Economists, Niš (Serbia).
    9. Sturgeon, Timothy J., 1997. "Does Manufacturing Still Matter? The Organizational Delinking of Production from Innovation," UCAIS Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, Working Paper Series qt2g22d9d2, UCAIS Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, UC Berkeley.
    10. Stavros Ioannides, 1999. "Towards an Austrian Perspective on the Firm," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 77-97, January.
    11. Christian Harm, 2002. "Bank management between shareholders and regulators," SUERF Studies, SUERF - The European Money and Finance Forum, number 21 edited by Morten Balling, May.
    12. Choe, Chongwoo & Ishiguro, Shingo, 2008. "On the (Sub)optimality of Multi-tier Hierarchies: Coordination versus Motivation," MPRA Paper 13451, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Iavor Marangozov, 2005. "From Practice to Theory of the International Joint Ventures," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 2, pages 44-77.
    14. Gary D. Libecap, 1990. "Comments on Elinor Ostrom," Rationality and Society, , vol. 2(1), pages 112-116, January.
    15. Watson, Sharon & Weaver, Gary R., 2003. "How internationalization affects corporate ethics: formal structures and informal management behavior," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 75-93.
    16. Christos N. Pitelis, 2011. "Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Integration," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume III, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Daniel W. Bromley, 1982. "Land and Water Problems: An Institutional Perspective," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(5), pages 834-844.
    18. Strong, John S., 2022. "The evolution of activist investors in the U.S. railroad industry," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    19. Nikolay Naydenov, 2007. "The Capital-Centered Model of Corporate Ownership," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 1, pages 42-59.
    20. Alain Verbeke & Liena Kano, 2013. "The transaction cost economics (TCE) theory of trading favors," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 409-431, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:29:y:1992:i:6:p:857-868. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.