Browsing by Author "Jäntti, Salla"

Usually enterprises make careful considerations about where to set up their business, but at times coincidence may also be a factor. Locations theories aim to explain the reasons impacting decisions over the location of their businesses, with Porter’s cluster theory being one of the best-known theories of this kind. Clusters are concentrations of actors that work in the related field and interact with each other. Knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) especially benefit from clustering. Accessibility is one of the main factors that impact firm locations. Accessibility, for example, helps enterprises expand their markets and improves availability of labour. The public sector has also impact on firm locations, for example through land use and industrial policy. When companies relocate they have already their history which impacts their relocation choices. The reason for the relocation is usually lack of space caused by firm expansion. Because of personal perception and uncertainty locations which are nearer are chosen more often. Creative destruction is force that maintains economical structure, having a crucial role to play in a company’s survival in the market. Accordingly, weaker companies are destroyed and replaced by more efficient ones. The aim of this thesis has been to explain dynamics of KIBS establishments in the Helsinki metropolitan area between the years of 2008-2013, answering questions of where companies locate, where new companies come into existence, how companies relocate and where companies fail. The information source for this thesis was SeutuCD data, with companies that had less than 1 employee removed from the data. The data were analysed with GIS methods and statistics. The main software utilised were ArcMap and Excel. 17 of the main establishment concentrations by employee were modelled by Hot Spot -analyse. The number of establishments were 7565–10705 over the sample period. Establishments were concentrated mainly in inner city districts of Helsinki, with other concentrations near main roads. History has impacted the development of at least some of the concentrations. 74 % establishments were from the subgroup of the business services. 69 % of the establishments had fewer than 4 employees. Smaller establishments were scattered around metropolitan area. Only less than one in five stayed in the same place between 2008 and 2013. Establishment might have failed, relocated or the size of the firm might have fallen to under 1 employee. On average, each year there were 570 new establishments and 612 establishments that failed. A total 4777 establishments relocated during the period in question. 17% of the establishments initially located in clusters relocated to the same area. In five areas the majority of relocations occurred within the same area. In other areas the majority of relocations occurred in the same municipality outside of the clusters. It is important to understand the dynamics of company locations because companies are central to municipal economies. The public sector also impacts the dynamics of companies. The same concentrations have stayed in the same place for years but establishments of the concentrations have regenerated many times. This thesis analysed the dynamics by using quantitative methods, with the potential for further study of the dynamics to be done using qualitative methods.