ABSTRACT
In this chapter we focus on the command and control functions of cities as indicated by the headquarter locations of major firms. As described in Chapter 1, these functions were integral to Friedmann’s (1986) early work and were also a key part of Sassen’s (1991) global city concept. More recently they have been analysed in detail by Godfrey and Zhou (1999) and Alderson and Beckfield (2004). We report analyses of headquarter locations for both the leading 75 financial services firms (banks and insurance) and for the largest 2000 firms (from all sectors) as defined by the Forbes Global 2000.
