Spatial Linkages and Subcontracting Relationships among High-Technology Industries in the Northeast Ohio Region

Abstract

In this paper the input, sales, and subcontracting linkages for a sample of high-technology establishments in Northeast Ohio are described. Viewed from theoretical perspectives on subcontracting, the types of linkages which these establishments maintain and the spatial extent of their subcontracting arrangements are investigated. Inputs to the production process and sales of intermediate and final goods are also examined to identify the regional and interregional patterns of activities. These establishments maintain the bulk of their linkages with the durable goods industries of the industrial heartland. Subcontracting transactions are confined largely to Northeast Ohio and the other major metropolitan industrial regions of the Midwest. Sales of products are more geographically dispersed, both interregionally and internationally. These findings demonstrate that interfirm transactions are both numerous and geographically specific. They support theoretical statements about the structure and extent of transactions in metropolitan-based industrial complexes.