Much attention has been given recently to the role and contribution of producer services in advanced economies. In most of these economies, producer services account for no less than 50 percent of employment in metropolitan areas. Evidently, the increase in the share of producer services in all employment has been well documented for Europe and for North America. In so far as the Asia Pacific economic region is concerned, there is a similar pattern of growth and development although this is only based on employment in finance, insurance, real estate and business services. Producer services represent one of the key new growth sectors, but in the context of the Asia Pacific economic region empirical work about how producer services are participating in, and shaping, the process of development remains to be undertaken. In the case of many developing countries in the Asia Pacific economic region grouping producer services are heavily represented in urban and metropolitan areas, which are more developed and functionally diverse. However, the role and contribution of producer services in the highest of the urban hierarchy in the developing countries of the region has not been examined adequately. The study reported in this book is also based on various debates concerning the interurban location of producer service activities. The overwhelming importance of face-to-face contact in both the acquisition of inputs and the delivery of the product to clients results in agglomeration-economies-maximizing and transaction-cost-minimizing in corporate activity complexes traditionally located in the CBD

During the second half of the twentieth century, development in the Asia-Pacific region has been dominated by industrialization. However, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, services, in particular, finance, information and creative services, have become deeply embedded in the processes of urban growth. In Asia-Pacific the rise of service industries has lead to national modernization programmes and globalization strategies. Services are also driving change in the internal form of city regions and are being actively deployed as instruments of metropolitan reconfiguration and land use changes. These changes have created problems such as social polarization and the displacement of traditional industries and residential districts. Also, there are tensions between local and global processes in the development of service industries, and between the imperatives of competitive advantage and sustainable development. Service Industries and Asia Pacific Cities brings together a multi-disciplinary team of experts to explore and illustrate the theoretical, conceptual and practical issues arising from the transformation of Asia-Pacific cities by service industries.

The development of the information technology (IT) industry in the Asia Pacific region faces two challenges. Firstly, can its established physical, technical, regional and governance infrastructures be adapted to meet the challenges embedded in the set of products and processes created by the IT industry? Secondly, as this adaptation evolves, which cities and regions will be best suited to connect to or lead global responses to these challenges? The chapters in this book have set out to explore these questions, providing details of change in a range of aspects of the IT industry such as mobile phones, software services, and flat screen design in regions in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, China and Australia. The book also outlines the policy responses of national and regional governments in Singapore, India and China and India. These case studies provide a basis to understand effective strategies which could be formulated for the future. This book’s originality emerges from the fine detail provided about firms, in particular regions and cities, from research carried out by young scholars in the past two years. This makes it very useful for readers keen to understand the recent changes in this dynamic industry in a fast growth part of the world, and it will also help to shape thinking by policy makers on policy settings that can be applied.

In the past three decades, China has experienced an unprecedented pace of economic and urban development. It’s economy is now transforming from one based on manufacturing industries towards the producer services, with the importance of these services in the national and regional economy being recognized by economists and policy makers alike. With growing demand and policy support, producer services are expected to expand rapidly, leading to a new wave of economic and urban development in China. This groundbreaking volume is one of the first to address questions related to the development of these services in China. The contributions explore a wide range of associated topics including the characteristics of the growth of producer services and how this is related to China’s economic and urban transition, the distribution of these services amongst Chinese cities, as well as drawing comparison between producer service development in China and Western counterparts. This volume also discusses the dynamics of the development of these services in China and how the political-economic embeddedness of China has shaped the development of producer services. Finally, the consequences of this growth and how the economy and urban space have change in response is explored, as well as the challenges Chinese cities face in moving towards a service economy, and how this can inform future public policies. This volume addresses the pressing need to understand the economic and urban changes in post-industrial China to allow appropriate strategies and policies to formulated to facilitate future development in China. The text is rich with statistical data and diagrams, providing original contributions and a cutting edge overview. This timely publication will be of interest to upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers interested in China, Urban Studies and Economic Development.

Until the 1990s, industrialization was the dominant development paradigm for the Asia-Pacific region. Since then, advanced services (finance, business or 'producer services', information and creative services) have become deeply embedded in the processes of economic growth and change in the region. This rapid tertiary expansion is fundamentally restructuring national and regional economies and urban form in line with the introduction of advanced production systems, national modernization programmes and the globalization strategies of governments. Services are being actively deployed as instruments of metropolitan reconfiguration and land use change. This book explores various aspects of the relationship between service industries and economic development in Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand. It provides new sector-oriented and regional and national perspectives on services and development.

Examines the growing role of services in the world economy

The acquisition and management of information is central to the operation and marketing of many service-providing firms and other organizations. Their varied knowledge requirements influence approaches to organizational structure, relationships to other organizations, the location of operations, and entry into new markets. In this book, an international and interdisciplinary team of leading scholars examines the attributes of knowledge acquisition and diffusion within and across service-providing organizations. Using a variety of case examples, they pay particular attention to the processes of internationalization and the ways in which service-providing organizations affect regional economic development.