ABSTRACT
A small number of transnational corporations (TNCs) dominate the world’s advanced business services, making it one of the most internationalized industries in the world. These corporations have penetrated local country markets across the globe through an extensive network of branch and affiliate offices. These offices tend to be located in key cities in each region. As a result of this spatial clustering effect, TNC activity has created important global business service centres in every region of the world. Asia-Pacific has the highest concentration of these centres among the developing country regions (Beaverstock et al. 1999). Within Southeast Asia, the cities of Singapore, Bangkok and Manila have emerged as important second and third tier hubs in this global business services network. Despite their prominence, however, there has been relatively little study on the business service industry in these Southeast Asian capitals.
