Largest enterprises in the Czech Republic: A spatio-temporal perspective

Abstract

This article focuses on spatial structure of one hundred largest enterprises in the Czech Republic from evolutionary perspective. The location of large enterprise headquarters in the Czech Republic and its implications for country’s economic spatial profile and unevenly distributed economic power is discussed thoroughly. The whole analysis is pragmatically accomplished at the level of self-governmental NUTS III regions. As it is shown, intense concentration processes in the location of largest enterprise headquarters were observed during the analyzed period between 1995 and 2010. The capital city with its surroundings proved to be the winners of this process. Currently, the spatial pattern of afore mentioned head offices is basically stabilized. On the other hand, weight of large enterprises of many regions is almost negligible and subsequently, rank of individual regions can be rather volatile. Generally speaking, economic map of the Czech Republic is not entirely in compliance with country’s settlement system. Simultaneously, fundamental factors determining the location of large enterprise head offices are evaluated also from qualitative perspective. Traditional hard location factors, such as infrastructure, geographical location or agglomeration economies turned out to be decisive for location decision-making. Apart from Prague, headquarters of large enterprises tend to prefer other big towns in the country, such as Brno, Ostrava, Olomouc, Hradec Králové or Plzeň.