The Siemens plant in North Tyneside, England gave the pretext for a range of local agencies to act together, to modernise part of the regional institutional infrastructure. This improvement meant that when the investment closed, and technological, organisational and skill modernisation by the firm in the region ceased, the region continued to experience the benefits from the temporary presence of the investment. This paper uses the case of Siemens to problematise the conventional understanding of the ephemerality of branch-plant investments to understand how they can usefully contribute to the modernisation of peripheral industrial regions within the UK.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BartlettC. A.GhoshalS.1989: Managing across borders: new strategic requirements, London: Hutchison Business Books.
2.
BenneworthP. S.1997: Prospects for inward investment in manufacturing in the North East, Business Review North, Vol9, No3, 12–17.
3.
BentleyG.ShuttR.1995: The regeneration of peripheral regions: The EU regional policy and the English regions: case studies and lessons for the future, AESOP Conference Paper.
4.
BlackmanT.1995: Urban policy in practice, London: Routledge.
5.
BlairP.1991: Trends in local autonomy and democracy, reflections from a European perspective, inBatleyR.StokerG.(eds)Local government in Europe: trends and developments, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
6.
CawsonA.1985: Corporatism and local politics, inGrant (ed)The political economy of corporatism, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
7.
CharlesD. R.HowellsJ.1992: Technology transfer in Europe: public and private networks, London: Belhaven.
8.
CharlesD. R.BenneworthP. S.1998: Just where is the “North East” today? Situating the North East in the European space economy, The Northern Region in transition: perspectives from Newcastle University, Conference 20th–21st January 1998, Newcastle University.
9.
CookeP.1997: Institutional reflexivity and the rise of the region state, inBenkoG.StrohmayerU.(eds)Space and social theory: interpreting modernity and postmodernity, Oxford: Blackwell.
10.
CookeP.1998: Regional innovation systems — origins of the concept, inBrazyckH.-J.CookeP.HeidenreichM.(eds)Regional innovations systems — the rôle of governances in a globalised world, London: UCL Press.
11.
CorcoranJ. G. LiddleJ.1997: Foreign direct investment in North Tyneside: the case of Siemens UK, Economics Division Working Paper, Sunderland: University of Sunderland.
12.
CoulsonA.1997: Business partnerships and regional government, Policy and Politics, Vol25, No1, 31–38.
13.
DarnellA.EvansL.1995: The economic record since 1975, inEvansL.JohnsonP.ThomasP.(eds)The Northern Regional economy: progress and prospects in the North of England, London: Mansell.
14.
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions1997: Building partnerships for prosperity, London: The Stationery Office.
15.
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions1998: Building partnerships in the English regions: a study report of regional and sub-regional partnerships in England, London: The Stationery Office.
16.
Department of Trade and Industry1994: Competitiveness: helping business to win, London: HMSO.
17.
Department of Trade and Industry1996: Competitiveness: creating the enterprise centre of Europe, London: HMSO.
18.
Department of Trade and Industry1998: Our competitive future: building the knowledge-driven economy, London: HMSO.
19.
EdyeD.LintnerV.1996: Contemporary Europe, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall Europe.
20.
FloridaR.1995: Towards the learning region, Futures, Vol27, No5, 527–36.
21.
FoleyA.McAleeseD.1991: Overseas industry in Ireland, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
22.
GrabherB.1993: Rediscovering the social in the economics of inter-firm relations, inGrabherG.(ed)The embedded firm: on the socio-economics of industrial networks, London: Routledge.
23.
GrantR. M.1991: Porter's “Competitive Advantage of Nations”: an assessment, Strategic Management Journal, Vol12, No6, 535–48.
24.
GrimwadeN.1991: International trade: new patterns in trade, production and investment, London: Routledge.
25.
HudsonR.1994: Institutional change, cultural transformation and economic regeneration: myths and realities from Europe's industrial areas, inAminA.ThriftN.(eds)Globalisation, institutions and regional development in Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
26.
JohnP.WhiteheadA.1997: The renaissance of English regionalism in the 1990s, Policy and Politics, Vol25, No1, 7–18.
27.
LagendijkA.1999: The emergence of knowledge-oriented forms of regional policy in Europe, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Vol90, No1, 110–16.
28.
LloydA.1999: Bright apprentices switch to new role — skilled young Siemens trainees are being snapped up all over region, Evening Chronicle, 20th January.
29.
LoveringJ.1998: Misreading and misleading the Welsh economy; the “new regionalism”, Papers in Planning Research 166, Department of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff: University of Wales.
30.
McCleanB.MatasB.YanceyT.YanceyN.1998: The semiconductor market recovery, Scottsdale, Arizona: IC Insights.
31.
McKayD. H.CoxA. W.1979: The politics of urban change, London: Croom Helm.
32.
OsborneM.1998: “Siemens first multienvironment fab”: Siemens Microelectronics, North Tyneside, UK. Fabtech 7, January 1998.
33.
PeckF.StoneI.1991: New inward investment and the Northern Region, Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle Polytechnic.
34.
PikeA.1998: Making performance plants from branch plants? In situ restructuring in the automobile industry in the UK, Environment and Planning A, Vol30, 881–900.
35.
PorterM. E.1990: The competitive advantage of nations, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
36.
RhodesR. A. W.MarshD.1992: Policy networks in British politics: a critique of existing approaches, InRhodesR. A. W.MarshD.(eds)Policy networks in British government, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
37.
SchmitterP. C.1985: Neo-corporatism and the state, inGrant (ed)The political economy of corporatism, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
38.
SharpeL.1993a: The European meso: an appraisal, inSharpeL.(ed)The rise of meso government in Europe, London: SAGE.
39.
SharpeL.1993b: The United Kingdom: the disjointed meso, inSharpeL. (ed)The rise of meso government in Europe, London: SAGE.
40.
ShawK.1993: The development of a new urban corporatism: the politics of urban regeneration in the North East of England, Regional Studies, Vol27, No3, 251–59.
41.
TownsendA.1995: Manufacturing: how important is it?, inEvansL.JohnsonP.ThomasP.(eds)The Northern Regional economy: progress and prospects in the North of England, London: Mansell.
42.
Trade and Industry Select Committee1995: Fourth report — regional policy, London: HMSO.
43.
WalkerW.1993: National innovation systems: the United Kingdom, inNelsonR. R.(ed)National innovation systems: a comparative analysis, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
44.
WardK.1997: The Single Regeneration Budget and the issue of local flexibility, Regional Studies, Vol31, No1, 78–(0)81.
