The city of Eindhoven is situated at some 100 km east of the Randstad, the cultural and economic centre of gravity of The Netherlands. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the city of Eindhoven was no more than a small agricultural town, with some 5,000 inhabitants. The foundation of Philips in 1891 marked the beginning of the rapid development of the city (Adang and van Oorschot, 1996). The city has grown, incorporating the area of five smaller towns. Nowadays, Eindhoven is the fifth largest city of The Netherlands, with 203,000 inhabitants. It lies in the province of North-Brabant, and stands at the centre of a region, Southeast Brabant, which is often referred to as the Greater Eindhoven Area, or the ‘Eindhoven region’ (see Figure 3.1). This region comprises 22 municipalities. Like the city of Eindhoven, the population of this region grew quickly in the twentieth century. Today it counts some 709,000 inhabitants. Contributing 40 per cent of the industrial added value in The Netherlands and almost one-third of the industry jobs and half of the research and development expenditure by firms, the Eindhoven region can be considered effectively the true ‘industrial heart’ of The Netherlands. Figure 3.1 <target id="page_53" target-type="page">53</target>The greater Eindhoven region https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315236919/587e5e98-5bcb-4216-b0ca-98c371adbdd4/content/fig3_1_OC.tif"/> Source: FPER, 1997.