Advanced Producer Service Firms Research Articles

New regional geographies of the world as practised by leading advanced producer service firms in 2010

This paper reports a new type of world regionalisation based upon the location strategies of leading advanced producer service firms. To generate these ‘global practice’ regions, a principal components analysis of the office networks of 175 service firms across 138 cities is used to identify 10 common location strategies. These are interpreted as fuzzy (overlapping) and porous regional formations each consisting of two parts: a home‐region and a global‐outreach. The results indicate five overlapping pairs of regions: (i) intensive and extensive globalisations based upon the USA plus London (USAL); (ii) Americas and Latin America regions; (iii) Pacific Asia and China regions; (iv) Europe and Scandinavia regions; and (v) Australasian and Canadian ‘Commonwealth’ regions. All regions have worldwide global‐outreaches but they differ significantly in their respective sizes and importance. Discussion of these findings elaborates upon two key points: first, globalisation is not a ‘blanket’ process creating a homogeneous world, and second, the resulting fuzzy and porous regionalisation counters the traditional ‘territorialist’ regional geographies that can provide a framework for global conflict with a more complex geography of multiple global integrations.

American cities, global networks: mapping the multiple geographies of globalization in the Americas

The mapping of advanced producer and financial service firms across global cities began to increase understanding of the role of cities in global governance, the presence and influence of cities in the shifting architecture of global political economy, and the role of globalization in shaping the landscape of local and regional governance. The literature that emerged from such studies has also emphasized 1) increasing levels of inequality in global cities and 2) attendant contests over local outcomes of globalization while seeking other ways of measuring and articulating the emergence of globalizing cities. Analyzing location strategies in other sectors can speak to these issues. This paper extends methodology common to the global cities literature to map non-governmental organization (NGO) and energy corporation offices in the Americas, focusing on the convergence and divergence of these networks with those of advanced producer and financial services firms. Mapping all three sectors might reveal multiple geographies of globalization in the Americas. Because globalizing cities have become the centers of integrated world capital, radical poverty, and environmental injustice, studies of poverty in the Americas must take seriously the urban centers that increasingly have become the hub of economic and ideological flows. The urban location strategies of advanced producer and financial services, global NGOs, and global energy corporations must be understood in order to grapple more fully with issues of inequality in American cities.

Germany’s Polycentric Metropolitan Regions in the World City Network

On a regional scale, two types of polycentricity can be observed. The first involves polycentric metropolitan regions that have evolved in the course of post-suburban development around a previously monocentric city, whereas the second type involves neighbouring metropolises evolving into a multi-core polycentric metropolitan region due to an increase in the functional interaction between each other. The German urban system is characterised by both types of polycentricity. In this paper I examine the role of these two types of polycentricity within the context of globalisation. I address the question of whether individual metropolitan cores and metropolitan cores and their associated post-suburban areas share the global functions of a metropolitan region or whether such functions are concentrated in a single city within the metropolitan region. To this end, I analyse the locations of leading global advanced producer service firms in Germany in their role as sub-nodes of the world city network. Finally, I discuss the empirical findings in the context of modelling the world city network.

Changes in the German Urban System—A Financial-Sector Perspective

Urban systems analysis and especially the seminal contributions of the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) so far mainly rely on the analysis of national and international office geographies of advanced producer services firms. This paper shows how the geography of demand-supply relationships and associated knowledge flows adds important qualitative information to the office geographies of the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. It contributes to our understanding of intercity relations and networks—and thus of urban systems more generally. We illustrate our approach by looking at private equity firms and their knowledge management strategies in Germany. Empirically, we analyze private equity firms’ business relations and networks with external partners as well as their geographical organization. While private equity firms’ geographical organization in Germany is characterized by decentralized concentration with nodes in Frankfurt and regional financial centres, there is evidence that among the latter Munich plays a special role. Only in Munich has private equity—cross-fertilized by other local financial actors—initiated a self-supporting development which strengthens Munich as a financial centre. The paper illustrates how the dynamics of private equity and its knowledge management lead to Germany’s financial system having a more tiered structure and how qualitative network analysis can help deepen our understanding of urban systems development.

Knowledge Hubs in the German Urban System: Identifying Hubs by Combining Network and Territorial Perspectives

This paper identifies hubs of knowledge-based labour in the German urban system from two perspectives: the importance of a metropolitan region as a place and the importance of a metropolitan region as an organisational node. This combination of a network perspective with a territorial perspective enables the identification of hubs. From the functional perspective, hubs are understood as important nodes of national and global networks, established by flows of people, goods, capital and information as well as by organisational and power relations. From the territorial perspective, hubs are understood as spatial clusters of organisations (firms, public authorities, non-governmental organisations). The functional focus of the paper lies on knowledge-based services. Based on data about employment and multi-branch advanced producer service firms, four main types of metropolitan regions are identified: growing knowledge hubs, stagnating knowledge hubs, stagnating knowledge regions and catch-up knowledge regions. The results show an affinity between knowledge-based work and bigger metropolitan regions as well as an east-west divide in the German urban system.

External Relations of German Cities Through Intra-firm Networks—A Global Perspective

This paper adopts a global perspective to investigate external relations of German cities, both transnationally and on the national scale. At the centre of the analysis are the locational strategies of major advanced producer service firms that link the cities in which they operate through a multitude of flows. Using an interlocking network model and data on the organizational structure of leading business service firms, the paper measures and interprets the extent to which German cities were integrated in the world city network in 2008. The global positions and national network patterns of 14 major German cities are explored, as well as the sectoral strengths and geographical orientations of their external relations. The paper concludes with an assessment of the trajectory of German cities in the world city network between the turn of the twenty-first century and the onset of the current financial crisis. The analysis reveals a geography of advanced producer services that is polycentric in character but does not map directly onto the distribution of other metropolitan functions. In a longitudinal perspective, German cities experienced an absolute and relative decline in global network connectivity between 2000 and 2008, which raises questions about the changing strategic importance of German cities in the world city network.

The UK Space Economy as Practised by Advanced Producer Service Firms: Identifying Two Distinctive Polycentric City‐Regional Processes in Contemporary Britain

AbstractCities and city regions are back on the research agenda in the UK. Taking the world city literature as a guide, this article uses advanced producer service firms to study contemporary inter‐city relations in the UK space economy. We employ an interlocking network model, initially developed for global scale analysis, to assess signs that recent globalization is effecting a revival outside the London region, and to identify leading urban areas in the UK national economy. Two different analyses are presented: a connectivity analysis, which indicates how well cities and towns are linked into the UK space economy, and a fuzzy clustering analysis, which classifies the cities and towns in order to search out hierarchical and regional tendencies. From these findings, we identify two distinctive polycentric city‐regional processes in contemporary Britain: a Jacobs‐style polycentric mega‐city regional process out of London, which creates new important service centres and reaches selected smaller cities and towns; and a polycentric multi‐city regional process beyond London, which mainly enhances the service capacities of selected larger cities. A concluding section considers the implications of the two processes for spatial planning in the UK.Résumé Les villes et régions urbaines reviennent en force dans la recherche britannique. Orienté par les publications sur les villes mondiales, ce travail utilise les entreprises de services avancés à la production pour étudier les relations contemporaines entre villes dans l’économie spatiale britannique. À l’aide d’un modèle de maillage, mis au point à l’origine pour une analyse à l’échelon mondial, nous mesurons les signes indiquant que la récente mondialisation provoque une relance hors de la région de Londres et nous identifions les zones urbaines dominantes de l’économie nationale. Sont présentées deux analyses différentes: une analyse de la connectivité, montrant dans quelle mesure les villes et grandes villes sont reliées au sein de l’économie spatiale britannique, et une analyse des groupements flous qui classe villes et grandes villes afin de trouver les tendances hiérarchiques et régionales. À partir de ces résultats, sont identifiés deux processus distincts de région urbaine polycentrique dans la Grande‐Bretagne contemporaine: un processus de méga‐région urbaine polycentrique, proche de la description de Jacobs, à la périphérie de Londres, qui crée de nouveaux centres de services importants et atteint certaines villes et grandes villes plus petites; un processus de multi‐région urbaine polycentrique au‐delà de Londres, qui renforce principalement les capacités de services de certaines grandes villes. La conclusion étudie les implications des deux processus sur l’aménagement spatial au Royaume‐Uni.

Changing Value Chain of the Swiss Knowledge Economy: Spatial Impact of Intra-firm and Inter-firm Networks within the Emerging Mega-City Region of Northern Switzerland

Thierstein A., Lüthi S., Kruse C., Gabi S. and Glanzmann L. Changing value chain of the Swiss knowledge economy: spatial impact of intra-firm and inter-firm networks within the emerging Mega-City Region of Northern Switzerland, Regional Studies. Based on an empirical analysis of intra-firm and inter-firm connectivities, this paper focuses on the spatial behaviour of advanced producer services (APS) firms and their relevance for polycentricity in the emerging Mega-City Region of Northern Switzerland. APS firms are found to be the main drivers of the emerging Mega-City Region. Although Zurich seems to be the central node in national APS networks, it is the complementary combination of Zurich and Basel, together with some secondary centres, that raises the emerging Mega-City Region to a competitive level in the context of the global economy. Thierstein A., Lüthi S., Kruse C., Gabi S. et Glanzmann L. L'évolution de la chaîne des valeurs dans l'économie de la connaissance suisse – l'impact géographique des réseaux intra et interentreprises au sein de la naissante méga-cité-région de la Suisse du Nord, Regional Studies. A partir d'une analyse empirique de la connectivité intra et interentreprises, cet article cherche à focaliser le comportment géographique des services à la production avancés (advanced producer services, APS) et leur importance pour ce qui est du maillage polycentrique de la naissante méga-cité-région de la Suisse du Nord. Il s'avère que les entreprises APS sont les principales forces motrices de la naissante méga-cité-région. Bien que Zurich semble être le noyau central des réseaux APS nationaux, c'est le binôme Zurich–Basel, conjointement avec quelques centres secondaires, qui élèvent la naissante méga-cité-région au rang compétitif dans le cadre de l'économie mondialisée. Economie de la connaissance Chaîne des valeurs Maillage polycentrique Méga-cité-régions Analyse des réseaux Thierstein A., Lüthi S., Kruse C., Gabi S. und Glanzmann L. Die veränderte Wertschöpfungskette der Wissensökonomie in der Schweiz. Räumliche Auswirkungen von firmeninternen und firmenexternen Standortnetzen in der Metropolregion Nordschweiz, Regional Studies. Der Artikel betrachtet das räumliche Verhalten von wissensintensiven Dienstleistungsunternehmen und deren Relevanz für die polyzentrische Raumentwicklung der Metropolregion Nordschweiz. Die Resultate basieren auf einer Analyse von firmeninternen und firmenexternen Standortverflechtungen und machen deutlich, dass die wissensintensiven Dienstleistungsunternehmen die treibenden Kräfte der Metropolregion Nordschweiz sind. Zürich erweist sich zwar als zentraler Standort für internationale Netzwerke wissensintensiver Dienstleistungsunternehmen. Erst die Komplementarität von Zürich, Basel und weiteren nachrangigen Agglomerationen führt jedoch zur nötigen kritischen Masse, damit die Metropolregion Nordschweiz im internationalen Standortwettbewerb bestehen kann. Wissensökonomie Wertschöpfungskette Polyzentrität Metropolregionen Netzwerkanalyse Thierstein A., Lüthi S., Kruse C., Gabi S. y Glanzmann L. La cambiante cadena de valores de la economía suiza del conocimiento: impacto espacial de las redes intra e interempresariales en la emergente región mega-ciudad al norte de Suiza, Regional Studies. Basándonos en un análisis empírico de las conexiones intra e interempresariales, en este artículo abordamos el comportamiento espacial de los servicios avanzados al productor (SAP) y su importancia para la policentralidad en la emergente región mega-ciudad al norte de Suiza. Observamos que las empresas SAP son los principales impulsores de la emergente región mega-ciudad. Aunque Zúrich parece ser el nodo central en las redes nacionales de SAP, es la combinación complementaria de Zúrich y Basilia, junto con algunos centros secundarios, lo que eleva la emergente región mega-ciudad a un nivel competitivo en el contexto de la economía global. Economía del conocimiento Cadenas de valores Policentralidad Regiones mega-ciudad Análisis de redes

Geographies of Knowledge Formation in Mega-City Regions: Some Evidence from the Dutch Randstad

Lambregts B. Geographies of knowledge formation in mega-city regions: some evidence from the Dutch Randstad, Regional Studies. An important source of competitiveness for mega-city regions results from their capacity to combine a strong local knowledge capital base with high levels of connectivity to similar regions elsewhere in the global economy. Globally networked advanced producer services firms are presumed to play a key role in transferring knowledge between local and global circuits. But how does this actually work? Which kinds of knowledge may be acquired through global networks and which others not? An in-depth analysis of the practices of knowledge production by advanced producer services firms in the mega-city region of the Dutch Randstad provides some answers. Lambregts B. Des géographies de la formation de la connaissance dans des mégalopoles: des preuves provenant de la Hollande Randstad, Regional Studies. Une source importante de compétitivité pour les mégalopoles provient de leur capacité à combiner une base de connaissance locale forte avec des niveaux de connectivité aux regions similaires quelque part ailleurs dans l'économie mondialisée. Les sociétés de services avancés à l'industrie qui sont en réseau sur le plan mondial sont censées jouer un rôle clé dans le transfert de la connaissance entre des circuits locaux et mondiaux. Mais il faut se poser les questions suivantes. Comment est-ce que cela se déroule dans la réalité? Quelle connaissance est-ce que on peut ou est-ce qu'on ne peut pas acquérir par le canal des réseaux mondialisés? Une analyse approfondie des méthodes de production de la connaissance par les sociétés de services avancés à l'industrie situées dans les mégalopoles de la Randstad fournit quelques réponses. Mégalopoles Rapports de connaissance Services avancés à l'industrie Sociétés à bureaux multiples Compétitivité régionale Randstad Lambregts B. Geografien der Wissensbildung in Megastadtregionen: Belege aus der Randstad in Holland, Regional Studies. Ein wichtiger Faktor der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Megastadtregionen liegt in ihrer Kapazität begründet, eine starke lokale Wissenskapitalbasis mit einem hohen Maß an Verknüpfung mit ähnlichen Regionen an anderen Orten der globalen Wirtschaft zu kombinieren. Es wird angenommen, dass weltweit vernetzte Wirtschaftsdienstleister bei der Übertragung von Wissen zwischen lokalen und globalen Kreisläufen eine zentrale Rolle spielen. Doch wie funktioniert dies in der Praxis? Welche Arten von Wissen lassen sich über globale Netzwerke erwerben und welche anderen nicht? Eine intensive Analyse der Praktiken der Wissensproduktion durch Wirtschaftsdienstleister in der Megastadtregion Randstad liefert einige Antworten. Megastadtregionen Wissensbeziehungen Wirtschaftsdienstleistungen Firmen mit mehreren Filialen Regionale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Randstad Lambregts B. Geografías de la formación de conocimiento en las regiones mega-ciudad: algunos ejemplos del Randstad en Holanda, Regional Studies. Un factor importante de la competitividad de las regiones mega-ciudades radica en la capacidad de combinar una base sólida de capital de conocimientos locales con altos niveles de conectividad para regiones similares en otras partes de la economía global. Se supone que las empresas de los servicios avanzados de productores con redes en todo el mundo desempeñan un papel fundamental en transferir conocimientos entre circuitos locales y globales. Pero ¿cómo funciona esto en la práctica? ¿Qué tipos de conocimientos podrían adquirirse a través de redes globales y cuáles no? Un análisis exhaustivo de los métodos de producción de conocimientos por parte de empresas de servicios avanzados al productor en la región mega-ciudad de Randstad nos ofrece algunas respuestas. Regiones mega-ciudad Relaciones de conocimiento Servicios avanzados de productores Empresas con varias oficinas Competitividad regional El Randstad

Application of the Interlocking Network Model to Mega-City-Regions: Measuring Polycentricity Within and Beyond City-Regions

Taylor P. J., Evans D. M. and Pain K. Application of the interlocking network model to mega-city-regions: measuring polycentricity within and beyond city-regions, Regional Studies. The interlocking network model, devised to study worldwide inter-city relations, is adapted to measure relations between cities within and beyond polycentric urban regions. The network makers are advanced producer service firms and their office networks are used to estimate positions of cities in networks. Data are collected covering nearly 2000 office networks across 200 cities in eight mega-city-regions. From these data, four estimates of the connectivities of cities (within their city-regions, nationally, at the European scale, and globally) enable unique comparisons of polycentricity at different geographical scales. The results are discussed for their policy implications. Taylor P. J., Evans D. M. et Pain K. Application du modèle de maillage aux mégalopoles: Mesure de la polycentricité dans les villes-régions et au-delà, Regional Studies. Le modèle de maillage, conçu pour étudier les relations entre villes dans le monde, est adapté pour mesurer les relations entre villes de régions urbaines polycentriques et au-delà. Les concepteurs de ce réseau sont des entreprises de services de pointe et leurs réseaux de bureaux servent à estimer les positions des villes dans ces réseaux. Les données recueillies couvrent près de 2000 réseaux de bureaux dans 200 villes appartenant à huit mégalopoles. A partir de ces données, quatre estimations de la connectivité de ces villes (dans les villes régions, sur le plan national, à l'échelle européenne et mondiale) permettent des comparaisons uniques de la polycentricité à différentes échelles géographiques. Les auteurs examinent les résultats en ce qui concerne leurs implications politiques. Régions multinodales Connectivité Taylor P. J., Evans D. M. und Pain K. Anwendung des ineinandergreifenden Netzwerkmodells auf Megastadtregionen: Messung von Polyzentrizität innerhalb und außerhalb von Stadtregionen, Regional Studies. Das ineinandergreifende Netzwerkmodell, das zur Untersuchung weltweiter Beziehungen zwischen Städten entwickelt wurde, wird zur Messung der Beziehungen zwischen Städten innerhalb und außerhalb polyzentrischer Stadtregionen angepasst. Die Entwickler der Netzwerke sind Wirtschaftsdienstleister; anhand der Filialnetze dieser Firmen werden die Positionen von Städten in Netzwerken geschätzt. Erfasst werden die Daten von beinahe 2000 Filialnetzen in 200 Städten innerhalb von 8 Megastadtregionen. Anhand dieser Daten werden mit Hilfe von vier Schätzungen der Konnektivität von Städten (innerhalb ihrer Stadtregionen, auf nationaler Ebene, auf europäischer Ebene und weltweit) eindeutige Vergleiche der Polyzentrizität auf verschiedenen geografischen Maßstäben möglich. Die Bedeutung dieser Ergebnisse für die Politik wird erörtert. Multinoduläre Regionen Konnektivität Taylor P. J., Evans D. M. y Pain K. Aplicación del modelo de redes entrelazadas para las regiones de mega-ciudades: medición de la policentralidad dentro y más allá de las ciudades región, Regional Studies. El modelo de redes entrelazadas, creado para estudiar las relaciones interurbanas en todo el mundo, se ha adaptado para medir las relaciones entre las ciudades dentro y más allá de las regiones policéntricas urbanas. Los responsables de las redes son empresas de servicios avanzados de productores y sus redes de oficinas se utilizan para calcular las posiciones de las ciudades en las redes. Para este estudio se recabaron los datos de casi 2000 redes de oficinas en 200 ciudades en 8 regiones de mega-ciudades. A partir de estos datos, cuatro cálculos de las conectividades de las ciudades (dentro de sus regiones-ciudades, a nivel nacional, a escala europea, y globalmente) permiten hacer comparaciones exclusivas de la policentralidad a diferentes escalas geográficas. Asimismo analizamos los resultados para conocer sus repercusiones políticas. Regiones multinodales Conectividad

Moving images: world cities, connections and projects in Sydney's TV production industry

AbstractWorld city research concerned with connectivity has tended to focus on advanced producer service firms and on selected North American and European cities; the prevailing methodology has been quantitative. In this article I answer the call to ‘go beyond counting’ by bringing together a project‐based enquiry — on a TV mini‐series Mary Bryant— with a more conventional assessment of network connectivity. The inclusion of a practice‐centred approach to this case study adds the performative data to the network, highlighting the actions and processes of those involved in maintaining the city networks. Furthermore, I demonstrate how this method of analysis is more suited to the study of project‐based cultural industries and highlight the role of Sydney in the global television industry — a city hitherto under‐explored in world city literature.

The duality of world cities and firms: comparing networks, hierarchies, and inequalities in the global economy

AbstractMuch of the research on globalization conceives of the global economy as structured by networks among places, while separately organizational research has examined the role of networks among firms in structuring competition, collaboration, and cooperation. In both cases, position and centrality within the network confers certain advantages and disadvantages, the distribution of which defines a hierarchy. In this article, I explore the idea of dual networks of world cities and firms, then use Breiger's approach to define two such networks: one among 313 world cities, another among 100 advanced producer service firms. Comparison of the degree of inequality in the hierarchies implied by these networks suggest that world city hierarchies are steeper than firm hierarchies (that is there is greater inequality among cities). Thus, even under conditions of footloose global capitalism, place still matters: where a producer is located has more impact than who provides support services.

Local Geographies of Global Players: International Law Firms in Brussels1

Literature on world cities has repeatedly argued that major agents of globalization, i.e. ‘global players’ such as advanced producer service firms, transnational corporations and international organisations, play a determining role in interlocking cities into networks of control centres of the contemporary world economy. It is very rare however that analyses cover the spatial distribution of these global players within urban settings. We argue here that local geographies of global players shed a new light on how globalization is territorialised in cities. Following an outline of Brussels' position in European and world city networks, this contribution analyses the transnational linkages, local strategies and intra-urban spatial distribution of international law firms in Brussels as a case study. Empirical evidence highlights the play of agglomeration economies down to micro-local scales (i.e. the street, the office building) and the influence of past layers of organisation of urban space on present-day territorialisation of international law firms in the city. We argue that these results are indicative of how further analyses of local geographies of global players could foster a deeper understanding of world cities as global‐local nexuses within contemporary globalization, hence combining insights from the two main existing research orientations on world cities today – focused respectively on inter-urban or intra-urban analyses.

Networking the City

One of the key themes of the twenty-first century will continue to be globalisation1. The consequences of globalisation for transforming our world's cultures, economies, societies, environments and politics are increasingly important and it is the growing number of worldoriented cities that are in many ways both the producers of, and the foci for, the global trends which help shape the lives of much of the world's population. The global cities of London, New York, Tokyo, Paris and Frankfurt2 are perhaps the most important cities for the world economy. This is because they contain, among other things: international stock exchanges, the headquarters of multinational corporations, trans-national institutions, and the primary offices of global advanced producer service firms in sectors such as accountancy, advertising, banking, insurance, and law. The cities that possess these attributes are called global cities because they dominate the world economy and set the trends for other cities around our planet. However, it is not simply what a city contains that is important, rather it is the joining up of cities through trans-national networks and flows of capital, people, information, practices and economic activity which is increasingly fundamental to the changing geography of the world. In urban geography and urban studies in general the idea that cities (and to a lesser extent other human settlements) are linked together has become something of a new interest. For example, recently Peter Hall (with Pfeiffer) has written about A networked urban world' (2000), John Friedmann (2002) has written about 'Intercity networks in a globalizing era', Saskia Sassen (2002) has edited Global Networks Linked Cities, and Peter Taylor has recently published World City Network (2004). This change in thinking is largely a product of a focus on globalisation and its flows of money, information, knowledge, goods, people, images, cultural practices, etc. which are seen to bring cities together into a world city network. Some have come to argue that through these flows a new trans-territorial network space has emerged that is produced and reproduced through the binding together of cities such as New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris (see Beaverstock et al, 2000a). Clearly the emergence of a world city network is a very important geographical issue and it is the purpose of this article to introduce you to some of the landmark contributions, and some current topical ideas, in the development of our understanding of how cities are becoming increasingly joined up. Let me begin with a popular illustrative example, before turning to the academic literature itself.

Attending to the world: competition, cooperation and connectivity in the World City network

World Cities are acknowledged to be a key aspect of globalization. In many accounts, these cities are depicted as rivals in a global marketplace, their economic success a result of their competitive advantage. However, what has not been fully acknowledged is their connectivity and, in addition, the time and effort taken by specific ‘attendants’ to produce the World City network. Accordingly, this article aims to advance understanding of World City network formation by developing a conceptual model that focuses on four major attendants (firms, sectors, cities and states) that enact network formation through two nexuses —‘city‐firm’ and ‘statesector’— and two communities —‘cities within states’ and ‘firms within sectors’. The utility of this model is demonstrated by drawing upon interviews conducted in offices of 39 advanced producer service firms in banking and law. These interviews were undertaken in three World Cities (London, New York and Singapore) in the wake of the East Asian financial crisis, an event that challenged the consistency of the World City network. Showing how attendants sought to maintain and transform the World City network at this key moment of crisis, we conclude that studies of city competitiveness ultimately need to focus on the cooperative work that sustains global networks.

Specification of the World City Network

World cities are generally deemed to form an urban system or city network but these are never explicitly specified in the literature. In this paper the world city network is identified as an unusual form of network with three levels of structure: cities as the nodes, the world economy as the supranodal network level, and advanced producer service firms forming a critical subnodal level. The latter create an interlocking network through their global location strategies for placing offices. Hence, it is the advanced producer service firms operating through cities who are the prime actors in world city network formation. This process is formally specified in terms of four intercity relational matrices—elemental, proportional, distance, and asymmetric. Through this specification it becomes possible to apply standard techniques of network analysis to world cities for the first time. In a short conclusion the relevance of this world city network specification for both theory and policy‐practice is briefly discussed.

World Cities in the Pacific Rim: A New Global Test of Regional Coherence

A new evaluation of the Pacific Rim concept is presented. The originality of this test for regional coherence is to be found in the basic units being analysed: cities instead of states. Based on a theoretical framework that identifies world city and world city network formation in terms of the office networks of advanced producer service firms, we use a principal components analysis to analyse a data set of 28 Pacific Rim cities and 46 global service firms. This identifies five main groupings of cities in terms of similar mixes of corporate service firms: a western Rim group; a group of ‘old Commonwealth’ cities; a market communist group of cities; Tokyo as a global city; and US cities as a specific separate group. These results confirm numerous earlier studies that were sceptical of the existence of a coherent Pacific Rim region. However, the particular approach adopted here allows us to identify the Pacific Rim generically as a particularly pernicious construct. We conclude that the Pacific Rim is a geographical chaotic conception.

The Locational Geography of Advanced Producer Service Firms: the Limits of Economies of Agglomeration

To maintain its relevance for the analysis of economic ex-yuternalities and internalities rendered by locational behaviour andyspatial organisation of firms, the concept of ‘economies ofyagglomeration’ must be amended in two ways. First, its socio-ycultural content must be recognised. Second, the interaction be-ytween agglomerations and other spatial forms, in particulary'global networks of agglomerations', must be taken into account.yIf these two conditions are met, it becomes possible to disconnectyeconomies which are traditionally attributed to agglomeration asya spatial form, from this spatial form and to revisit the signifi-ycance of urbanisation economies for the location and spatialyorganisation of knowledge-based industries like advanced pro-yducer services. The relevance of reconsidering ‘agglomerations inytheir global networks' for the analysis of the economic geographyyof such services is illustrated for information technology con-ysultancy and executive search and selection consultancy firms.