Abstract
The interlocking world city network model and other office location approaches (OLAs) have become the most widely used empirical models of the world city network (WCN). Despite numerous methodological improvements, they continue to rely on a legacy of using data on office locations of firms to indirectly estimate intercity business flows. To advance the dialogue about how to improve on existing empirical models of the WCN, we examine the content, construct and structural validity of OLAs. We analyze the link between the theoretical construct of intercity business flows and network projections obtained from office location data and uncover evidence that calls into question the validity of OLAs as empirical models of the WCN. In the spirit of no deconstruction without reconstruction, we then develop an alternative empirical model of the WCN, based on directly observable relational ties among APS firms, which are formed through co‐production of complex services. We call this the inter‐organizational project approach (IOPA). We argue for IOPA's construct validity as an empirical model of the WCN and offer empirical evidence for its structural validity. We demonstrate it using a global sample of 161,114 investment bank syndicates in the 2000–2015 period.
Highlights
We have to deploy the strategy of employing indirect measures because measuring actual business flows in our research on global inter-city relations is impossible (Taylor and Derudder 2016, 38).Since Taylor’s (2001) specification of the interlocking world city network model (IWCNM), it has become the most widely used empirical model of the world city network (WCN)
We present our argument by examining office-location approaches (OLAs) and inter-organizational project approach (IOPA) in turns to evaluate how well each of these approaches meets the criteria for content and construct validity (Cronbach and Meehl 1955), before we move to the tests of structural validity (Messick 1995)
We are hoping to advance the dialogue on the appropriateness of the IWCNM and other OLAs for indirectly measuring intercity business flows and to further motivate research focusing on developing, formalizing and validating empirical models of the WCN
Summary
We have to deploy the strategy of employing indirect measures because measuring actual business flows in our research on global inter-city relations is impossible (Taylor and Derudder 2016, 38).Since Taylor’s (2001) specification of the interlocking world city network model (IWCNM), it has become the most widely used empirical model of the world city network (WCN). We have to deploy the strategy of employing indirect measures because measuring actual business flows in our research on global inter-city relations is impossible (Taylor and Derudder 2016, 38). OLAs have been methodologically refined since, they still carry the legacy of APS firms’ office location data as the primary data input into these models, and the basis for indirect estimation of intercity business flows (Neal 2014; Taylor and Derudder 2016). As new data sources become available, we believe that this presents a major opportunity to reconsider the reliance of WCN research on untested assumptions related to the ability of network projections from office location data to validly represent intercity business flows
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