Branch plant economy

A Branch plant economy is an economy that hosts many branch plants (i.e. factories or firms near the base of a supply chain/command chain), but does not host headquarters.[1][2] In particular, it was used in arguments that countries must develop independent companies, as a form of economic nationalism, to create better jobs and avoid having managerial positions filled only by corporate workers from outside the country.[1]

It was used in the 1970s to describe Canadian reliance on US headquartered corporations or Scottish reliance on English-headquartered corporations[1] but may have fallen out of mainstream use.[citation needed] Some opinion pieces still use the terminology to decry reliance on outside states, especially with regards to Canada’s relationship with the United States.[3][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Sonn, Jung Won; Lee, Dongheon (2012). "Revisiting the Branch Plant Syndrome: Review of Literature on Foreign Direct Investment and Regional Development in Western Advanced Economies". International Journal of Urban Sciences. 16 (3): 243–259. doi:10.1080/12265934.2012.733589. ISSN 2161-6779. S2CID 153679665.
  2. ^ Rogers, Alisdair; Castree, Noel; Kitchin, Rob (2013-09-19), "branch plant economies", A Dictionary of Human Geography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780199599868.001.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-959986-8, retrieved 2024-02-06
  3. ^ Crane, David (21 August 2023). "Canada cannot rely on a branch-plant strategy for the future". The Hill Times. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
  4. ^ Silcoff, Sean (2016-06-17). "Microsoft reminds us that Canada is still a branch-plant economy". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2024-04-10.