Case study: The Global Biotechnology industry

Biotechnology is one of the so-caled high-tech industries, often located on purpose-built science parks. It is a large umbrella title to cover a range of activities that are broadly related to the modification of living organisms for human purposes. Its origins go back the the domestication of animals, the cultivation of plants and the 'improvement' of both animals and plants - i.e. making them more productive or disease resistant. Biotechnology involves applying sciences such as biology in fields such as:

• Healthcare - searching for plants with medicinal value, developing new drugs
• Food production - Development of genetically modified (GM) crops and livestock
• Industrial use of crops -vegetable oils and biofuels
• The environment - recycling, treating waste and cleaning up polluted sites
• Warfare - the development of biological weaponry.

Biotechnology is primarily a quaternary activity since it is largely about research and development and serves all three of the other sectors. A basic location factor is a good supply of graduate scientists. It is this that perhaps explains why most all of the worlds biotechnology firms are located in HICs. Most of these firms have links with university research departments.

Once these firms come up with a good product, such as a new malaria drug, it will set up a factory to mass produce it. It is likely that such a factory could be set up anywhere in the world where labour and land are cheap. It would not be need to be located near the HIC it was developed at.

The changing location of manufacturing

The global distribution of manufacturing is very uneven. The great majority of the worlds  manufacturing  production is concentrated in a small number of countries. In fact, over 50% is accounted for by three counties, USA, China and Japan.

Despite the fact that manufacturing today is highly concentrated, the distribution pattern is a changing one. If we were to compare the current situation with that of 50 years ago, significant Global shifts would be apparent.  Since 1970, the HIC's share the world of manufacturing declined from 88% to 70%. Today around 25% of manufacturing production occurs in MICs particularly the so called emergent economies of China, Brazil, Russia and India.

The location of manufacturing has always been influenced by factors such as raw materials, energy, labour, markets, transport and land. Those factors are still influential, but there relative importance has changed and with it the location of todays manufacturing. There have been six particularly important developments:

• Transnational corporations (TNCs) - the emergence of huge companies that control much of the worlds manufacturing. These companies are locating their factories in the cheapest and therefore most profitable locations.
• Transport - Now much faster and cheaper. Therefore distance, say from raw materials or markets, is no longer as significant as it used to be.
• Communications - because of the speed and efficiency of modern communications, a manufacturing company can keep in immediate touch with factories scattered in different counties.
• Energy - much modern manufacturing relies on electricity as its main source of energy. Due to national grid systems, this form of energy can be made available almost anywhere.
• Governments - these are increasingly influencing the distribution of manufacturing. They are able to tempt industrialists to set up factories within their borders by various incentives, such as exemption from taxes or cheap read-made factory buildings.
• New branches of manufacturing - manufacturing is no longer just about making heavy goods such as steel, ships and chemicals. Manufacturing today is very much about making a widening range of consumer products such as electrical and electronic goods, clothes and furniture. Because of the four previous developments, the location of the production of these kinds of products is described as 'Footloose'. In other words their location is no longer tied by location factors such as the nearness of raw materials and markets.