The Importance of Government-Sponsored Location Incentives for Distribution Facilities

Within a marketing framework, examination is given to the attribute importance perception of corporate buyers and government promoters of distribution facility sites. A list of 44 locational incentives was generated by adapting the legislative climate components reviewed by Industrial Development magazine in every year's November/December issue. The results of the multivariate analysis of variance showed that buyers differed significantly from sellers in the perceived importance of these location incentive constructs. In order to better understand the decision-making process in this environment, a theoretical framework is provided. The framework supports the concept that the interaction between corporate buyers of distribution and governmental or quasi-governmental agencies promoting certain geographic areas constitutes an application of marketing. As such, marketing concepts and analytical procedures may be validly applied to suggest improvements in the activities conducted within this environment.