Surveys of manufacturing plants frequently require a representative sample of plants in a particular industry or geographical area. In this paper the usefulness of an alternative research design based on matched pairs of plants is evaluated. The design is illustrated with the use of a case study of the subcontract linkages of manufacturing plants. A new statistic is introduced which treats, in a more rigorous manner than conventional tests, cases where no differences were detected between pairs.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
EstallRBuchananR, 1973Industrial Activity and Economic Geography (Hutchinson, London)
2.
FoleyP, 1984, “A comparison of four industrial data sources” in Urban and Regional Industrial Research, The Changing UK Data Base Ed. HealeyM (Geo Books, Norwich) pp 91–104
3.
GibbonsJ D, 1976Nonparametric Methods for Quantitative Analysis (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York)
4.
GilmourJ M, 1974, “External economies of scale, inter-industrial linkages and decision-making in manufacturing” in Industrial Organization and Decision-Making Ed. HamiltonF E I (John Wiley, Chichester, Sussex) pp 335–362
5.
GripaiosP, 1977, “The closure of firms in the inner city: The South-East London case 1970–75”Regional Studies111–6
6.
HayA MPeckF W, 1984, “An alternative to the sign test in a matched pairs design”The Statistician33201–204
7.
HoareA G, 1978, “Industrial linkages and the dual economy, the case of Northern Ireland”Regional Studies12167–179
8.
LehmannE L, 1976Nonparametrics: Statistical Methods Based on Ranks (McGraw-Hill, New York)
9.
LeverW F, 1974, “Manufacturing linkages and the search for suppliers and markets” in Spatial Perspectives on Industrial Organisation and Decision-making Ed. HamiltonF E I (John Wiley, Chichester, Sussex) pp 309–334
MarshallJ N, 1979, “Ownership, organization and industrial linkage: A case study in the northern region of England”Regional Studies13531–557
12.
NorcliffeG BKotseffL E, 1980, “Local industrial complexes in Ontario”Annals of the Association of American Geographer7068–79
13.
PeckF W, 1983Industrial Linkage, Locational Advantage and Adaptive Behaviour in Manufacturing unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield
14.
SchmidtC G, 1974, “Locational adjustment and linkage structural change: A comparative analysis of two foundries”Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Geographical Journal396–107
15.
SiegelS, 1956Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioural SciencesInternational Student Edition (McGraw-Hill, Kegakusha, Tokyo)
16.
WarrenK, 1980, “Yorkshire and Humberside” in Regional Development in Britain Eds MannersGKeebleDRodgersBWarrenK (John Wiley, Chichester, Sussex) pp 309–327
