Asset servicing at a second-tier financial centre: Framing embeddedness through mechanisms of the firm-territory nexus

The integration of regional economies within multi-location firm networks, and the development effects stemming from such integration, is recognised as a critical but deeply complex research area (Dicken and Malmberg, 2001). In this paper, with Edinburgh's asset servicing activities providing an empirical context, a conceptual framework is developed that points to an initial suite of mechanisms that may underpin the firm-territory nexus. By doing this, a revised perspective on how territorial and network embeddedness overlap, is given. Recognising the heterogeneous nature of head office-branch and subsidiary relationships - which asset servicing functions are ultimately inscribed in - this paper shows how the local economic and institutional contexts present in Edinburgh mesh and jostle with the co-ordinating dynamics of the global financial services sector.