- 著者
-
田中 康一
- 出版者
- 人文地理学会
- 雑誌
- 人文地理 (ISSN:00187216)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.47, no.5, pp.417-438, 1995
- 被引用文献数
-
2
1
The author's purpose was to elucidate the mechanisms of the location and transfer of the headquarters of an enterprise.The author did a case study on an enterprise and used several kinds of numerical indicators and written statements from annual financial reports, corporate history book and other materials about the enterprise to explain the reasons for and the processes of the location and transfer of functional departments of its corporate headquarters, including those for purchasing, production control, sales, personnel, finance, general accounting, planning, general affairs, and the strategic decision making, with the help of theories of business management.For example, the transition of the financial ratios and the spatial distribution of financial sources of the enterprise were used to explain the location and transfer of its Finance Dept. and the transition of the spatial distribution of labor was used to explain those of its Personnel Dept.The implications resulting from the analysis of the differences and similarities between the transferring processes of those functional departments greatly helped to extract some common and important rules for the location and transfer of functional departments of the corporate headquarters.In this empirical analysis, Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd. (founded in 1925), Japan's largest dairy products company, was selected as a case study.The main reasons for choosing this enterprise were the abundant data concerning its financing and location since its foundation, and its experience in transferring its headquarters from the city of Sapporo, the largest city of Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands, to the capital city of Tokyo, the location of the nation's largest money market, most of the headquarters of the nation's largest banks and of other private and/or public organizations, the most important market for selling products, and the location with the most efficient access for transportation, communication and information processing.The facts found in the empirical study are summarized as follows:1. Until the company established its management base in the Hokkaido area, its financing depended on the local financial institutions and its Finance Dept. was located in Sapporo. But, as the company gradually expanded its operational space nationally, the volume of financial demand dramatically increased and came to depend on large financial institutions based in Tokyo and finally the Finance Dept. was transferred to Tokyo. Its gradual transfer started in 1958, just before the company started its nation-wide expansion, and took about two years to finish. Simultaneously, the transfer of the General Accounting Dept., the Planning Dept., and the Board of Directors occurred.2. As the locations of its plants and sales offices expanded nationally, the distribution of its labor also dispersed nationally. Accordingly the Production Control Dept. and the Personnel Dept., transferred to Tokyo, seeking for the most efficient access infrastructure to secure a national scale of transportation, telecommunication and information processing. As for the Personnel Dept., its gradual transfer started in 1958 and took more than seven years to finish and for Production Dept. about 10years, while the Sales Dept. had been located in Tokyo since the foundation of the enterprise.3. The General Affairs Dept. transferred following the locational shift of other departments.4. These transferring processes all involved a gradual transfer of authority from Sapporo to Tokyo and a spatial division of business management/administration both between and within functional departments was observed.Possible rules for the location of the functional departments based on the facts above are as follows:1. The location of a corporate headquarters is subject to the location of its functional departments.