ABSTRACT

City-regions are conferred economic advantage through their brokerage roles, which close structural holes between other city-regions that would otherwise not be connected within firm networks. Here, we identify city-regions whose brokerage roles are defined by their network positionality as intermediaries using flows based on ownership relations between headquarters and subsidiary locations. Applying Gould and Fernandez’s framework of five potential brokerage types, we find city-regions play one or more brokerage roles characterized by both global and domestic flows. Moving beyond understandings of brokerage as a position, we explain diversity in brokerage as defined by economic processes underlying urban networks.

摘要

城市区域通过其经纪角色获得经济优势，这些角色弥补了其他城市区域之间的结构性漏洞，否则这些漏洞将无法在公司网络内连接。在这里，我们使用基于总部和子公司位置之间所有权关系的流量，将其经纪角色由其网络位置定义为中介的城市区域确定为中介。应用 Gould 和 Fernandez 的五种潜在经纪类型框架，我们发现城市区域扮演着一种或多种以全球和国内流动为特征的经纪角色。超越对经纪业务的理解，我们解释了由城市网络背后的经济过程所定义的经纪业务的多样性。