ABSTRACT
In this chapter we move into the core of the POLYNET study. Following the limited survey of business movements between the eight regions, reported in Chapter 4, we now go into these regions and begin direct first-hand investigation into the actual linkages and flows within and between firms and organizations in advanced producer services (APS) and their individual members. We approach this central task through two very different but linked methods: first, we quantify the flows, taking a sample of key actors in these organizations and making a precise quantified survey of their business journeys and their information exchanges; second, we make a parallel qualitative study of these same individuals, through detailed and discursive interviews, to tease out patterns of both flows of information and also more subtle and less measurable linkages. This chapter reports on the quantitative travel and communication diary survey; Part 3 of the book, Chapters 6-8, will introduce the detailed and discursive interviews.
