Böhlin, Wigblad, McCluskey Productivity increase when relocating to rural areas The Relocation-Effect: A Productivity Increase when Relocating Service Activities from City to Rural Areas.

• Main Authors: Ragnwald Böhlin B. Sc, Associate Professor, Rune Wigblad, Dr Denise, R. Mccluskey
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Learning effect; Productivity; Relocation; Rural; Sweden; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.143.8156; http://is2.lse.ac.uk/asp/aspecis/20030130.pdf

Contacts with companies that had relocated service activities from the Stockholm city area to rural areas during the seventies, eighteens and the nineties, pointed to a phenomenon of increased productivity. A small study in 1995 also confirmed the experience of a positive leap in productivity. Previous research in the field is limited and mostly related to manufacturing industry. The literature reports no evidence of a positive change in productivity after relocation into rural areas. In 2000 – 2002, we conducted a study of 26 companies/organisations that has relocated service activities from the Stockholm city area into rural areas, mostly in northern Sweden. 80 % of the respondents reported an increase in productivity less than 1.5 years after the relocation and over 70 % reported an increase in quality 1.5 years after the relocation. The aim of this paper is to create an interest for our Research- in- Progress, and to be able