Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / W. Richard Goe / Over the last twenty-five years, the environment for banking has changed radically. In the 1980s, legislation was enacted to permit both interstate branching and combinations of banks, securities firms, and insurance companies. A generally strong economy, as well as deregulation, led to marked improvements in bank profitability and capital positions. At the same time, however, the deregulation of products and markets intensified competition among banks and between banks and nonbank financial companies. This, combined with improved information technology, applications for banking, accelerated the consolidation of the banking industry through mergers and acquisitions and set the stage for the establishment of huge banking firms of unprecedented size and complexity. While processes such as mergers and acquisitions decreased the number of firms, competition between these firms prompted the growth of new establishments in banking and financial services. While a larger proportion of the literature has focused on the structural and regulatory changes among firms that have arose during this transformation, little attention has been given to the factors that affect the location of physical establishments. This is particularly the case in relation to the location of new banking establishments in the nonmetropolitan U.S. It is the intention of this thesis to come to a better understanding of the factors that affect the locations of these establishments, in hopes of adding more insight into the process of bank establishment growth.

After the turn of the new millennium, the transformation of the'World Factory'- China under the restructuring Asian production network has been increasingly witnessed. Due to the changing dynamics at local, national, and global levels, production relocations of the labor-intensive industries from coastal China to the developing countries nearby, such as Vietnam, have been observed. Yet, little attention so far has been focused to see how these industries and the firms have been relocated out of China and reorganized their production networks. Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page, viewed November 12, 2020. Since the last decades, the global production network (GPN) approach in economic geography has been widely applied to study geographically dispersed production activities. Notably, the newly developed'GPN 2.0' theory has offered a framework to systemically understand the ways the transnational corporations (TNCs) have interacted with various firms and non-firm actors to orchestrate their production networks at different scales. Hence, drawing mainly upon the notions from the GPN 2.0 theory, particularly the firm-specific strategies, as well as the ideas from other social science studies, such as the institutional perspective, to develop a more comprehensive analytical framework, and taking the consumer electronics industry as a case, this thesis looks into the current production relocation from China to Vietnam, and the restructuring of the electronics production networks, particularly in Asia, since the late 00s. To be more explicit, based on extensive field investigation since December 2017, especially in-depth interviews in both host and home regions, the current study examines, firstly, a broader picture of the restructuring of the global and Asian electronics production networks and the participation of Vietnam into the networks; secondly and more specifically, how firms from different origins, including the relatively established TNCs from Asian newly industrialized economies (NIEs) and the emerging TNCs (ETNCs) from emerging economies, such as China, have spatially and organizationally reconfigured their cross-border production networks in Vietnam. This thesis argues that the restructuring of the Asian electronics production networks is not only a sequential production relocation solely led by TNCs from Japan and the NIEs, but it is also driven by the ETNCs from China. Changing roles of emerging and developing countries, such as Vietnam as an assembly hub and an emerging market and China as an intermediate good's exporter, in the restructuring process have been witnessed. This study also illustrates that various closeness of the firm-state relationships has led to different results of the extra-firm bargaining process between the TNCs and the multi-scalar host institutions and thus the production relocation and the strategic coupling outcomes. As for the ETNCs originated from China, the current study showcases that the inherent legacies of the home institutions embedded in these firms have significantly impacted both spatial and organizational configurations of their production networks in Vietnam. Apart from empirically updating the restructuring and regionalization of the electronics production networks in Asia, particularly in developing Southeast Asia, this thesis enriches the economic geography literature primarily by taking the actors from the emerging and developing economies, which have been largely ignored in previous conceptualizations of the GPNs, particularly the ETNCs as well as the multi-scalar institutions in both host and home regions, into account.

After the turn of the new millennium, the transformation of the'World Factory'- China under the restructuring Asian production network has been increasingly witnessed. Due to the changing dynamics at local, national, and global levels, production relocations of the labor-intensive industries from coastal China to the developing countries nearby, such as Vietnam, have been observed. Yet, little attention so far has been focused to see how these industries and the firms have been relocated out of China and reorganized their production networks. Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page, viewed November 12, 2020. Since the last decades, the global production network (GPN) approach in economic geography has been widely applied to study geographically dispersed production activities. Notably, the newly developed'GPN 2.0' theory has offered a framework to systemically understand the ways the transnational corporations (TNCs) have interacted with various firms and non-firm actors to orchestrate their production networks at different scales. Hence, drawing mainly upon the notions from the GPN 2.0 theory, particularly the firm-specific strategies, as well as the ideas from other social science studies, such as the institutional perspective, to develop a more comprehensive analytical framework, and taking the consumer electronics industry as a case, this thesis looks into the current production relocation from China to Vietnam, and the restructuring of the electronics production networks, particularly in Asia, since the late 00s. To be more explicit, based on extensive field investigation since December 2017, especially in-depth interviews in both host and home regions, the current study examines, firstly, a broader picture of the restructuring of the global and Asian electronics production networks and the participation of Vietnam into the networks; secondly and more specifically, how firms from different origins, including the relatively established TNCs from Asian newly industrialized economies (NIEs) and the emerging TNCs (ETNCs) from emerging economies, such as China, have spatially and organizationally reconfigured their cross-border production networks in Vietnam. This thesis argues that the restructuring of the Asian electronics production networks is not only a sequential production relocation solely led by TNCs from Japan and the NIEs, but it is also driven by the ETNCs from China. Changing roles of emerging and developing countries, such as Vietnam as an assembly hub and an emerging market and China as an intermediate good's exporter, in the restructuring process have been witnessed. This study also illustrates that various closeness of the firm-state relationships has led to different results of the extra-firm bargaining process between the TNCs and the multi-scalar host institutions and thus the production relocation and the strategic coupling outcomes. As for the ETNCs originated from China, the current study showcases that the inherent legacies of the home institutions embedded in these firms have significantly impacted both spatial and organizational configurations of their production networks in Vietnam. Apart from empirically updating the restructuring and regionalization of the electronics production networks in Asia, particularly in developing Southeast Asia, this thesis enriches the economic geography literature primarily by taking the actors from the emerging and developing economies, which have been largely ignored in previous conceptualizations of the GPNs, particularly the ETNCs as well as the multi-scalar institutions in both host and home regions, into account.

No description available.

The present study… had for its purpose to discover in what ways, to what extent, and under what conditions, both farming and industrial employment contribute to the family living of these persons in Henry County, Virginia who are engaged in both part-time farming and industrial employment. / Master of Science

Jiao, Lin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-48). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.2 / 摘要 --- p.3 / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.6 / Chapter 2. --- Theoretical Background --- p.12 / Chapter 3. --- Data --- p.15 / Chapter 4. --- Measuring Geographic Concentration/Specialization --- p.16 / Chapter 4.1 --- Various Measurements --- p.16 / Chapter 4.2 --- Geographic Concentration of Industries in China --- p.19 / Chapter 5. --- Geographic Concentration and Firm Size --- p.21 / Chapter 5.1 --- Approach of Holmes and Stevens (2002) --- p.22 / Chapter 5.2 --- Case in China --- p.24 / Chapter 5.3 --- An Alternative Approach --- p.26 / Chapter 6. --- Across Industries and Ownerships --- p.28 / Chapter 6.1 --- Across Industries --- p.28 / Chapter 6.2 --- Across Ownerships --- p.31 / Chapter 7. --- Conclusion --- p.42 / References --- p.44 / Appendix --- p.58

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

published_or_final_version / abstract / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

A utilização de gás natural tem ganhado espaço na matriz energética brasileira, principalmente dentro do setor industrial. Para um conjunto de segmentos e processos industriais, a utilização de gás natural como energético ou matéria prima envolve significativos ganhos do ponto de visto ambiental, técnico e econômico. A hipótese motivadora deste trabalho está relacionada ao potencial papel de indutor do desenvolvimento regional que a disponibilidade de gás natural possui. Uma vez que a presença de gasodutos exibe um evidente padrão de concentração espacial bem definido, seria natural esperar que as indústrias que levassem em conta a disponibilidade deste energético em sua decisão de localização se tornassem mais concentradas, acompanhando o traçado dos principais gasodutos. Foram definidas duas principais vias de análise: (i) a avaliação do nível de concentração geográfica (ou espacial) da indústria, verificando-se a existência de padrões distintos para a média da indústria e um grupo de setores definidos como heavy users de gás natural (cerâmica, têxtil e química), e (ii) a avaliação e mapeamento das correlações espaciais entre o emprego industrial (proxy da atividade industrial) e a presença de gasodutos. Para o Brasil, os resultados não permitiram concluir pela existência de relação entre concentração industrial e disponibilidade de gás natural. Porém, para o Estado de São Paulo verificou-se que existe uma forte correlação positiva entre a presença de gasodutos e o nível de emprego para os segmentos heavy users, mesmo quando se consideram os efeitos de outras variáveis relevantes (custos de transporte, qualificação da mão de obra e ganhos com a especialização). / The use of natural gas has gained space in the Brazilian energy matrix, especially in the industrial sector. For a set of segments and industrial processes, the use of natural gas as a fuel or raw material involves significant environmental, technical and economic gains. The hypothesis motivating this work is the potential role that the availability of natural gas has as a promoter of regional development. The natural gas pipelines exhibits a clear pattern of spatial concentration, therefore it would be natural to expect that industries that took into account the availability of energy in their location decision became more concentrated, following the route of main pipelines. We defined two main pathways of analysis: (i) assessing the level of industry geographical (or spatial) concentration, verifying the existence of distinct patterns for the industry as a whole and a group of sectors defined as heavy users of natural gas (ceramics, textiles and chemicals), and (ii) the assessment and mapping of the spatial correlations between manufacturing employment (a proxy for industrial activity) and the presence of pipelines. For Brazil, the results failed to establish the existence of a relationship between industrial concentration and availability of natural gas. However, for the State of São Paulo has been found that there is a strong positive correlation between the presence of pipelines and employment for heavy users segments, even when considering the effects of other relevant variables (transportation costs, qualification of labor and gains from specialization - agglomeration economies).