Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The research had two major objectives: examining the implications of the growing foreign ownership in the London market for the way this market operates and for the competitive position of London as a leading global centre. The shares of foreign firms in the City have been growing continuously, to reach a point in which the competitive position of London as a leading centre for financial services is based largely on foreign ownership. The study sought to gain insights into the reasons for this situation, and to draw their implications for the continuous vitality of London as a leading global centre, and for the competitiveness of British-owned insurance firms; examining the London Market as a cluster of related business activities and the value of local linkages between firms for their competitive performance in London and elsewhere. In this context, the study sought to identify the major factors that may threaten the continuing survival and success of this cluster. It also sought to understand the linkages of this London cluster with global financial centres elsewhere and to assess the value of linkages that take place at different geographic levels for the competitive performance of London firms and the London market as a whole.

Main Topics:

The dataset comprises a number of sections: general characteristics of firms – documents areas of specialisation, ownership structure, size, age, etc.; the competitive position of firms – inquires regarding the operating routines of the organisation and their impact on its competitive position. More specifically, data refer to revenue distribution, local institutional influences, labour practices, firms’ perceptions of the internal and external determinants of their competitive performance; the operation of firms in the London market – this section gathers data on the linkages of firms with clients, suppliers, other insurance companies and employees in the London market and elsewhere, and seeks to establish the local embeddedness of firms in the London market; the international activities of the organisation - this section gathers data only on foreign affiliates and contains information regarding the nature of the international activity of multinational companies and the advantages they may derive from them. It contains data regarding the linkages between the London office and its foreign parents, the nature of control and sharing of responsibilities between them; open questions – this section contains qualitative information on the views of respondents on the issue of foreign nationality in the City and its implications for competitiveness of the firms involved. These have been coded in to quantitative responses.

One-stage stratified or systematic random sample

Telephone interview

Postal survey