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World City Networks and Multinational Firms: An Analysis of Economic Ties Over a Decade

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Abstract

One perspective to view the economic development of cities is through the presence of multinational firms; how subsidiaries of various organizations are set up throughout the globe and how cities are connected to each other through these networks of multinational firms. Analysis of these networks can reveal interesting economical and spatial trends, as well as help us understand the importance of cities in national and regional economic development. This paper aims to study networks of cities formed due to the linkages of multinational firms over a decade (from 2010 to 2019). More specifically we are interested in analyzing the growth and stability of various cities in terms of the connections they form with other cities over time. Our results can be summarized into two key findings: First, we ascertain the central position of several cities due to their economically stable connections; Second, we successfully identify cities that have evolved over the past decade as the presence of multinational firms has increased in these cities.

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Data Availability

The data used in this study was made available by Bureau van Dijk (Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing http://www.bvdep.com/). The data cannot be shared publicly due to certain licensing restrictions.

Notes

  1. Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing (http://www.bvdep.com/)

  2. ORBIS 2010, 2013: BvD - Universite de Lausanne (CitaDyne group) and University of Paris (ERC Geodiversity group).

  3. A simple graph has only one edge between two vertices with no self-loop

  4. Global hubs are centers for many multinational firms

  5. Ports are either seaports or inland ports; inland ports are similar to seaports but with smaller capacity and use inland waterways such as rivers instead of the sea.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the team members of CitaDyne research group at Université de Lausanne, Switzerland and ERC GeoDiversity research group at University of Paris, France to correct erroneous entries and fill in missing data. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback and comments that enabled us to improve the quality of this manuscript by adding insightful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematics and Computer Science, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Pakistan

    Mohammed Adil Saleem

  2. School of Administrative Studies, Canada and School of Mathematics and Computer Science, Institute of Business Administration, York University, Karachi, Pakistan

    Faraz Zaidi

  3. University of Lausanne, Institute of Geography and Sustainability, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Céline Rozenblat

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  1. Mohammed Adil Saleem
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  2. Faraz Zaidi
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  3. Céline Rozenblat
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Correspondence to Faraz Zaidi.

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Saleem, M.A., Zaidi, F. & Rozenblat, C. World City Networks and Multinational Firms: An Analysis of Economic Ties Over a Decade. Netw Spat Econ 23, 559–580 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11067-023-09587-y

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