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Empirical analysis of business location in Greater Vancouve

University of British Columbia

This thesis represents an empirical analysis of business location in Greater Vancouver based upon the analysis of the returns to a location survey questionnaire. This questionnaire comprises a portion of the HPS project which is a large-scale, special research study of the Region. The study empirically determines which questionnaire variables (factors) influence the relative location/ relocation of various firms located in the G.V.R.D. Statistical analysis and regression models provide an empirical data base for the land use group in their development of models which allocate economic activities across the Region. The questionnaire returns possess limitations with respect to both scope of coverage and questionnaire format. Analysis is accordingly limited; suggestions are made to obtain better quality empirical data in future studies. The thesis derives some general interregional results although the data is extensively utilized in a decidedly intrametropolitan context. The interregional results depict which variables are important in the location and relocation decisions for each subpopulation. In contrast, an empirical basis for intrametropolitan business location policy in the G.V.R.D. is derived from the analysis herein. The intrametropolitan analysis is feasible because size (i.e. number of employees) and location are known for most respondents. An empirical synthesis via some common independent variables is suggested to exist, at least for the G.V.R.D., between interregional and intrametropolitan location. This will aid in the construction of future questionnaire studies for each subpopulation at the interregional or intrametropolitan levels in the G.V.R.D. Eventually, location theories of substantial empirical utility will be derived for each subpopulation. Aside from the empirical value, this thesis is valuable in terms of analytical procedure. The regression transformation technique is applicable to other questionnaire studies where the type of response scale constructed is in question. The overview of location theory and Metropolitan Vancouver are furthermore thought to provide an appropriate background to this study as well as represent a substantial literary contribution.

Text

2010-01-19

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/18665

Business Administration - Urban Land Economics

University of British Columbia

Graduate