Introduction

From the perspective of a host region, the value of hosting a gatekeeping company to a consumers market, like for instance a car manufacturing plant, is first of all related to the success of the company’s end products on the world markets.1 For it is market success that determines the annual output and own industrial activity of such a company. Moreover, in a time of intensified outsourcing, its value depends strongly on the employment, added value and general wealth such a company generates through spillover effects to the wider economy and its embeddedness within the region in question.2