The influence of transport on industrial location choice: a stated preference experiment

Stated preference experiments are introduced and applied to an investigatio n of the influence of road transport and other factors on industrial locati on in terms of the ex ante decision making process. The experiments, based upon repeated hypothetical discrete choices between pairs of locations, inv olved respondents from firms making trade-offs between the various characte ristics in a fractional factorial, orthogonal survey design. In each define d case, a clear hierarchy of location factors emerged. These were found to vary according to the origin of the firm - classified as local relocations, foreign inward investors, and branch plants sourced from national bases. T he importance of road links to location choice varied considerably between these groups with the latter rating motorway links the highest of any of th e groups of firms. In contrast, overseas sourced branch firms found road li nks largely unimportant, being outweighed primarily by considerations of wo rkforce and premises. Local relocations fell into two distinct groups with respect to the importance attached to road links (between relatively import ant and non-important), whilst considering the other factors similarly. Goo d public transport provision emerged as a statistically significant factor only in certain scenarios. Finally, the paper discusses implications for lo cation choice models in transport and further research. (C) 2000 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.