When Low Wages Aren't Enough Anymore: Prospects for Remote Branch Plant Regionsin the International Economy

摘要

The report focuses on the effects of international competition on the viabilityof branch plants in rural areas. The authors outline the geography of branch plant manufacturing and summarize the strategies that corporations may follow as changing competitive situations affect the textiles, apparel, food processing and automotive parts manufacturing industries. The interactions of local and state economic development, national policies, technological shifts, and corporate strategies are examined to reveal the competitive conditions in which rural branch plants find themselves. The setting for state and local economic development activities is also explained and several key observations and/or recommendations made: (1) past economic development practices that focused on reducing the costs of business are too simplistic for today's global environment; (2) economic development policy and practices must begin to incorporate analyses of strategic intent to gain a more sophisticated understanding of the operations of a community's major employers; and (3) the few model programs that exist illustrate the key considerations for the development of branch plant retention programs. These programs would require considerable political commitment at the state and local levels, and they would require an allocation of resources commensurate to that which is currently available to branch plant recruitment efforts.