Branch plants have been a major factor in the filtering down process in Georgia. Industrial movement down the urban hierarchy seems in general to describe filtering down prior to about 7960, but metropolitan to nonmetropoiitan filtering down has been more characteristic of the past twenty years. High versus low technology industries are differently involved in the filtering down process, with high iechnology industries dominating new branch plant location in nonrnetropolitan areas. Key Words: branch plant, product cycle, filtering down, nonmetropolitan, high technology, standardization.AS scholars have investigated in more detail the patterns and processes of industrial locational change, the greater the complexities that have been recognized and the more new questions raised. The role of corporations in molding regional industrial growth or decline is one area of research which has generated considerable recent interest. It i s estimated, for example, that 80 percent of U.S. manufacturing assets are controlled by 500 corporations [77]. A subset of research on corporate locational decision making i s the specific role of branch plants in locational change. Although branch plants have been part of the industrial scene for many decades, especially in some regions, only recently have they received detailed empirical analysis and been examined within the context of theories of industrial organization and spalial change.Contemporary research regards the establishment of branch plants as an outgrowth of corporate decision making. Corporate management views organizational growth as a dominant goal in recent decades, often as an attempt to minimize uncertainty and risk [ 5 ] . T o meet these goals, companies establish branch plants when they want to expand, develop new product lines, or deeniphasize their existing locational focus by competing in new market areas. Thus, branch plants provide the advantages of centralized management and administration while locating to achieve economies not possible at the headquarters. The result is decentralization, i.e., shifts in locational growth from metropolises to cities, towns, and nonmetropolitari areas.Several recent studies have used the "filtering down" concept as an explanation for industrial locational change. "Filtering down is based on the proposition that industries filter down through the system of urban places, from cities of greater to lesser industrial sophistication" [6, p. 254; 761. This process implies a movement of industrial employment down the urban hierarchy and the reason it occurs has been explained by the product life cycle concept, originally advanced by Hirsch and subsequently examined by others [72].According to the product life cycle concept, an industrial product typically evolved through three stages: new product, growth, and maturity. Each of these three stages

A spatial and sectoral reorganisation of producer services has begun to change the urban structure of Seoul. In addition to the existing centre of the CBD, two areas, Kangnam and Yongdeungpo, have emerged as the new centres of producer services in Seoul resulting from relocations from the CBD and the location of firm start-ups and spin-offs, so creating a multi-centred structure. There is a difference between the centres related to the fact that Kangnam is specialised in advanced services and has strong local networks among service firms, firms in Yongdeungpo have strong forward linkages to nearby manufacturing firms and to larger producer service firms, while firms in the CBD are relatively older and have much more intensive overseas ties. This outcome illustrates that shifts in the organisation of producer services in favour of outsourcing have been felt in shifts in spatial patterns. These new structures illustrate that producer service location and operation have a powerful influence upon the pattern of development in Seoul.During the last two decades, the growth of producer service activity has been remarkable in the large metropolitan areas of the developed countries. The development of producer services has resulted in structural changes within metropolitan areas, including synergies among firms, giving rise to agglomeration economies, and reducing transaction costs.Producer services' relatively high rate of spin-off effects and functional flexibility boost local industries via proximate inter-sectoral linkages and lead Asia

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Abstract. The major purpose of this article is to examine new dynamics in the economic spaces in the Pacific Rim with regard to the recent transition of the techno-economic paradigm. The logic of the new dynamics is related to the importance of regions or places in the space of flows and in the creation and transfer of knowledge in the Internet era. It is clear that most of the flows are directional and are grounded in physical places via material flows and social relations. Place becomes even more important in the era of the digital economy, due to the need for spatial proximity in the transfer of tacit knowledge. Three major patterns can be identified. First, innovation centers and knowledge-intensive service centers have been newly developed in the Asian Pacific Rim. Second, regional innovation systems are emerging in some of the major metropolitan areas of this part of the world, while diverse types of regional innovation systems have been developed with the restructuring of existing innovation centers and newly emerging innovation clusters. Third, diverse city regions have been developed and interactions between both sides of the Pacific Rim will be strengthened through business networks and innovation networks.JEL classification: F02, L16, O19, R11

This paper aims to investigate the evolution of the spatial division of labour and spatial dynamics in Korea in relation to industrial restructuring and technological development. The two restructuring processes in the 1990s, which were related to the labour movement in the late 1980s and to the financial crisis in 1997, had considerable impact on the dynamics of the Capital Region in Korea. In the processes of spatial restructuring in the Capital Region, four factors have been significant: distance, density of network, path dependency and creation, and ICT development. The improvement of transferability has impacted on both sides of the coin: localization and long‐distance networks. The cluster of service activities, especially knowledge‐based advanced services in Seoul, on the one hand, and long‐distance networks of service activities, on the other, have been promoted in recent years. Based on the result of the analysis, several policy implications are suggested with regard to the knowledge‐based information society and the ageing society of Korea. Resumen El objetivo de este artículo es investigar la evolución de la división espacial laboral y dinámica espacial en Corea relacionada con la reestructuración espacial y el desarrollo tecnológico. Los dos procesos de reestructuración de los años 90, relacionados con el movimiento laboral de finales de los 80 y la crisis financiera de 1997 tuvieron un impacto considerable en Corea en la dinámica de la Región Capital. Han sido cuatro los factores significativos en los procesos de reestructuración en la Región Capital: distancia, densidad de la red, dependencia y creación de rutas, y desarrollo de TIC. La mejora en la transferibilidad ha tenido un impacto en ambas caras de la moneda: localización y redes de larga distancia. En los últimos años se ha fomentado por una parte el conglomerado de actividades de servicios, especialmente servicios avanzados de conocimiento en Seúl, y por otra parte las redes de larga distancia de actividades de servicios. Con base en el resultado de los análisis, sugerimos varias implicaciones en cuanto a políticas relacionadas con la sociedad de la información basada en el conocimiento y el envejecimiento de la sociedad coreana.