INDUSTRIAL LOCATION : A PERCEPTUAL STUDY OF SINGAPORE

Abstract

For a long time, the theoretical basis of economic geography was founded upon the concept of 'economic man'. But in the late '60s, increasing dissatisfaction with traditional theories, like those propounded by Weber and Isard, to explain reality led to the development of behavioural approach in economic geography. This new approach essentially involves concern with the ways in which the individual perceives the environment and makes decision. Following this new approach, a number of studies has been done to measure managerial attitudes and to estimate the bias in decision makers' images of the environments within which they work. However, in Singapore such studies are very few. Perhaps, the most noteworthy study done on decision makers' perception of Singapore, is Neville and Taylor's work. Just like Neville and Taylor, this academic exercise also represents an attempt to study managerial perception of Singapore. More specifically, the objective of this study is to investigate whether location of ownership (that is, local or American owned) affects managers' perception of Singapore. The findings of this study are based on a survey of managers of 28 local and 36 American engineering firms in Singapore. Empirical analysis reveals that there is no significant perceptual difference between managers from local firms and managers from American firms. Indeed, both groups of managers perceive Singapore to be the most ideal manufacturing location in this region. The findings of the study also suggest that managerial perception is malleable since the Singapore government has been successful in moulding some managers' perception regarding certain aspects of the Singapore environment. Finally, the analysis of the findings stress the importance of a personal factor, chiefly, nationality of managers, in influencing their perception of any location. However, since the number of Americans present in the sample is very small, the findings regarding nationality cannot be generalised. The author concludes by suggesting that perhaps future research should attempt to ascertain the extent to which nationality of managers can affect their perception.