The production of goods and services has long been based on a close spatial connection between capital and labour. Modern information and communication technology has, however, already provided the means of relaxing this constraint. In recent years, many Swedish town centres have been losing firms, as business activities are often being relocated to suburban sites. The relocation of several service-producing firms (e.g., banks) from the centre to suburban sites is a phenomenon that frequently occurs. New suburban areas grow and attract both trade and industry. Similar decentralization processes can be seen in North American and European metropolises, even though the American examples are larger in scale and the process often started earlier.
Both nationally and internationally, one sees that firms in so-called overheated areas have begun to seek new organisational solutions in order to move entire firms, or parts of them, from these locations. Firms within different sectors have different opportunities for this. Business and service attract traffic. The firm´s location is thus an important factor influencing the volume of urban and regional traffic. As firms move to new sites, their locations also change in relation to their employees´ homes, thereby giving rise to new commuter-traffic patterns and possible changes of residence. The town´s economic and geographical fabric is continuously changing and for urban planning it is therefore important to understand and analyse the driving forces that cause these changes. Underlying structural changes influence the actual localization pattern of businesses, and it is just this changing pattern that is considered.
The paper examines the relocation of trade and business from the town centre to more peripheral urban locations. Th driving forces for decentralization are discussed within a conceptual theoretical framework.