This study analyses the impact of scale, establishment mobility and
policy siibstitution in the corporation's geographical behaviour. To
maximise opportunities for observing change, the effects of recession
on firms using a particular marketing system — product franchising —
are examined. It is argued that competitive powers, represented by
company structural attributes and expressed through relative network
control capacities, should assist larger organisations to undertake
spatial tactics which maintain their market and economic standing.
Nineteen agricultural machinery franchisors are classified on a number
of key variables into large and small groups. Their manufacturing,
wholesaling and retailing activity between 1967 and 1972 is compared on
criteria relating to the entry and exit of outlets. Certain locational
strategies adopted by major competitors are seen to stabilise or improve
distribution control, thus demonstrating a relationship of structural
factors, channel management and representation courses. However, a
broader association of these measures and market and general financial
performance cannot be shown because of data limitations. Subsidiary
findings point out the greater stability of large corporations in a
setback, the lower probability of continuation suffered by small
franchisors' dealers and the attack on small towns enforced by the
economic contraction. Through the use of an operational model within
an intensive, longitudinal analysis, the enquiry concludes that scale
effects pervade locational decision-making, not only among enterprises
but across the whole business sector. For the largest firms, spatial
policy is clearly an interchangeable means to goals and, thus,
establishment mobility can be pronounced. The divergence of such findings
from previous work contributes to the ongoing review of traditional
thinking in industrial geography and economics and prompts further
research into the interface of the corporation and the entrepreneur
