ANALYSIS OF EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES ON INDUSTRIAL LOCVATION: A REVIEW

Abstract

Technology is concerned with ways of making or doing things, and sometimes a technological change in one area leads to a change in others. This underscores the need for this review in order to determine the changes in the effects of some industrial location variables through time. From this review, the possibility of substituting one source of energy for another has been important in changing emphases in industrial locations over time. Presently, oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydro-electric powers can be used to produce electricity which has the advantage of being transported economically over considerable distances. In this regard, industries are able to locate primarily on the basis of other considerations than power. In many of the early industrial activities, location decision were guided by the attainment of maximum profits, while in the modern industries there is a great tendency for promoter's personnel consideration to override other economic issues in the choice of plant's location. Also, in the future locations, government regulations may stand out as crucial to the majority of firms. Over the years, issues on weight/bulk, perishability of products, higher freight rates on finished products, and personal contact between the producers and consumers are dominant market features in industrial locations. In addition to these in the contemporary industrial locations are volume of sales and demand for industrial products, development in transport facilities which makes transport easier, linkage effects, and advantages of industrial agglomerations. The results of the recent studies show that transport is no longer given a strong consideration in industrial locations because improvements in transport technology have reduced the friction of distance and made it more efficient. Also, transport cost has diminished as a percentage of total cost of production. However, in the less developed areas, industrial locations are towards urban areas because they have improved communication facilities unlike rural counterparts. Except for some very specialized industries, proximity to raw materials is no longer an important factor in industrial locations. The reason being that as technology improved, former physical constrains become less significant in location decisions. The quantity, quality, cost, and availability of labour have been significant in industrial location decisions, but the introduction of mechanization and automation in 18 and 19th centuries and availability of labour becoming ubiquitous have greatly reduced the importance of labor in the choice to locate industrial activities.

KEYWORDS: Industry, Location, Location factor, Location changes, Time.