Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1975

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Agricultural Economics

Major Professor

B. J. Deaton

Committee Members

M. B. Badenhop, Joe A. Martin, Keith Phillips

Abstract

The primary objectives of this research were to describe patterns of growth of recently-located manufacturing plants; develop measures of key community characteristics; and describe the relationship between key community characteristics and manufacturing plant expansion. The expansion of manufacturing plants appears to be of almost equal importance in the creation of non-farm jobs in rural Tennessee communities. The location of new manufacturing plants accounted for roughly 2,877 jobs annually, while the expansion of manufacturing plants included in this study accounted for roughly 2,566 jobs annually for the years 1967 through-1973. Of the 296 manufacturing plants that began operations during the study period, 56 discontinued operations before the end of 1973 causing a loss of 2,347 jobs. Factor analysis was used to develop indices of community characteristics to measure manpower availability and quality and community services. These community concepts were hypothesized to be important considerations in the manufacturing plant management decision to expand plant development. The communities included in this study were scored on their relative availability of manpower and community services. Multiple regression analysis was employed to isolate the relationship between the community factors and manufacturing employment expansion. The hypothesized relationships were consistently statistically significant. However, the relationship between the community services factor and employment expansion, previously hypothesized to be positive, was found to be consistently negative and significant in three of the equations of models one and two. Further investigation of the relationship between the community services factor and employment location and expansion indicated a tendency for the larger plants (greater than 50 employees) to be located in the communities scoring higher on the community services factor. Conversely, a larger number of smaller plants (less than 50 employees) were located in the communities scoring lower on the community services factor. The smaller plants tended to expand employment in the years following initial location while the larger plants tended to maintain a stable level of employment. However, employment fluctuations were large for both the large and small plants. The results obtained from the regression analysis may be an indication that the decision to expand manufacturing plant operations depends primarily on factors internal to the firm. Thus, communities that provide some minimal level of community services as those included in this analysis may not greatly influence manufacturing plant expansions by altering one or more of the macro community variables included in this analysis.

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