This paper presents a framework for analysing the role of regional headquarters in the globalisation strategies of transnational corporations (TNCs). Drawing upon a theoretical gap in existing urban studies and international business literature, we argue that the triadisation and regionalisation of TNC activities increase the demand for control and co-ordination functions previously performed by the global headquarters. Many global corporations consequently establish regional headquarters to penetrate into emerging markets, which may be too geographically distant to be co-ordinated and managed by the global HQs, and to achieve simultaneously global integration and local responsiveness. Based upon an empirical survey of 130 RHQs in Singapore and 20 follow-up personal interviews, we test some of the propositions of this regional strategy framework. Our ndings tentatively con rm that three independent variables play a statistically signi cant role in shaping the strategic decision by global corporations to establish RHQs in Singapore: geographical distance, strategic necessity and the availability of business services.

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The notion that the world is increasingly divided into a triad of economic regions based on North America, the European Union and Japan has become a form of conventional wisdom across a range of disciplines. However, despite the near ubiquitous use of the idea of a triadized world, it remains a somewhat normative assertion, the empirical existence of which has yet to be demonstrated. By using the intramax method to analyze the intensity of international trade and foreign direct investment flows during 1985 and 1995, we examine the changing shape of trade and investment 'blocs' globally. We find that while international trade is increasingly organized around fewer world regions, the presumed outcome of a triad-based world economy remains questionable. We further show that investment intensity patterns do not currently conform to any bloc-like formation, but exhibit instead, globally diffused network regions. key words triad international trade foreign direct investment regionalization globalization

This paper examines the geography of technological learning and knowledge acquisition among Taiwanese and Korean firms. Specifically it focuses on the knowledge sourcing experience of Asian manufacturing latecomers in the United States (US). The Asian latecomer model of learning is characterized by a triangular spatial division of knowledge sourcing and technological production that involves the transfer and circulation of knowledge across multiple spatial scales. At the regional level, Korean and Taiwanese firms rely on local learning systems in the form of science parks to create favorable domestic agglomeration economies that are conducive for knowledge accretion. At the trans-regional level, non-core R&D and the manufacturing of technology-driven products are geographically concentrated in China. Lastly, local and trans-regional learning are supplemented by international sourcing of knowledge through the location and investment of R&D facilities in the US. To the extent that extra-local knowledge sourcing in the US is associated with the acquisition of new knowledge forms, such a multiscalar spatial strategy is expected to help transform Asian learners from technology latecomer to technology newcomer status.