The brokerage roles of city-regions in global corporate networks

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.

KEYWORDS:

• brokerage
• world city networks
• world cities
• intermediaries
• economic geography

JEL:

• O16
• P45
• R12

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [grant number DP170104359].