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Towards a Spatial Deconcentration of Entrepreneurial Control? Some Empirical Evidence for the Austrian Regions, 1973–1981

In previous decades, industrial production and its spatial structure were strongly shaped by Fordist principles; mass production, fragmentation and standardization of production processes, and the emergence of large firms led to a spatial dispersal of production and a concentration of headquarters and control. But in the 1970s and 1980s this model of the organization of production seems to be losing importance in industrial countries. Standardized mass production was increasingly competed for by newly industrializing countries, and flexible production technology lowered the importance of scale economies. These changing conditions forced firms to reorganize their production and decision structures. Both an increasing centralization of enterprises (based on the new automation and information technologies— ‘neo-Fordism’) and a decentralization of production (towards small-scale firms) seem possible. It is to be expected that these changes are related to changes in the spatial division of labor and in the organizational characteristics of plants. An empirical analysis of Austria revealed marked changes in the organizational status of plants and in the spatial pattern of control in the period from 1973 to 1981. Externally controlled employment decreased in those areas which had the highest shares in 1973, namely, the old industrial areas and the peripheral rural areas. Major employment increases of externally controlled plants on the other hand occured in areas with a low degree of external control in 1973, namely, the agglomerations and tourist areas. Concerning the spatial pattern of control, there was a clear tendency to decentralization due mainly to a decline in the importance of Vienna as a headquarters location.