Corporate Structure and Corporate Change in a Local Economy: The Case of Bristol

Abstract

In this paper, I focus upon the role of large multinational corporations in the restructuring of local economies, using Bristol as a study area. In the first part of the paper, I concentrate upon the impact of the current recession on the city's manufacturing sector. The major local employers are identified and the pattern of corporate ownership and control discussed. An attempt is then made to trace out the impacts of different forms of corporate change during the period 1978–1982. In the second part of the paper, I concentrate on one large multinational corporation which has long associations with the Bristol area, and trace some of the local impacts of different phases of corporate growth over a longer time period. This paper is only a preliminary to a deeper and more wide-ranging analysis of the local economy, and, in the conclusions, I identify various lines of further inquiry.