An analysis of location types and spatial patterns in the Korean food manufacturing industry

Abstract

AbstractBecause the food manufacturing sector, as a fundamental and regionally specialized enterprise, has a substantial impact on the rural economy, an empirical analysis of the food manufacturing industry’s expansion is required. However, regarding the evidence and means of ensuring vitality in agricultural and rural areas, academic theories and empirical studies still lack depth among the existing scholarship. As such, this study conducted a spatial pattern analysis to determine whether small food manufacturers in Korea were more concentrated than other manufacturing industries by using cluster analysis methods. The data used for the analysis are business basic survey statistics (2010), taken from a comprehensive survey that discloses the number of businesses, number of employees, organizational type, employee size, and occupational status of all businesses nationwide every year, even at the 5-digit level of municipalities. Data from 2000 and 2010 were used to analyze the employment growth of the food manufacturing industry. In 2010, 230 cities (Si), counties (Gun), and boroughs (Gu) were targeted to analyze employment patterns in the food manufacturing industry. The analysis results indicated that there were differences in potential cluster regions according to regional characteristics. Through the results of the study of spatial patterns, several implications were found for Korea’s food manufacturing industry promotion policy. In addition, this study provides basic information for analyzing the external effects of the food manufacturing industry through agglomeration by industry and region and the impact on productivity through related industries.

Keywords

• demand location
• food manufacturing industry
• free location
• Getis-Ord Gi*
• spatial pattern
• supply location