ABSTRACT
It can be argued that one of the central aims of economic geography is to describe changes in regional economic structures and to understand why such changes takes place. This is most frequently explored in terms of jobs gained and lost rather than in terms of output. A focus on jobs rather than output arises from both the ready availability of regional employment data and a desire to link economic geography with public concerns about geographical variations in job opportunities. Within the wider concern with regional economic change, a particularly important group of studies focus upon the role of large multi-regional firms in guiding the geographies of the manufacturing sector. This reflects a fascination with the ways in which such firms shape the economic landscape
