Fusfeld and Bates identify the changes in the corporation that influenced the development of central city ghettos as the shifts from (1) centralized to decentralized management, and (2) production to marketing orientation. It was these developments according to Fusfeld and Bates that made significant contributions to the development of central city ghettos in the United States.
Centralized management, according to Fusfeld and Bates, led to the centralization of production functions. In turn, centralized production functions concentrated employment opportunities at the locations of centralized production. Because of infrastructure characteristics, centralized production functions were located typically in central cities.
The decentralization of the corporation, according to Fusfeld and Bates, has occurred at both managerial and production levels. With decentralization, employment opportunities are also moved from central city locations to an array of widely separated locations.
While the corporation has decentralized, however, only a part of the population of the central city has moved along with the relocated corporate functions. That part of the central city population that has remained, according to Fusfeld and Bates, is comprised largely of racial and ethnic minorities that, in the revised economic structure, find themselves competing with one another for fewer and fewer jobs that are progressively concentrated in the lower wage levels.
The shift in emphasis from production to marketing by the corporation, has, according to Fusfeld and Bates, accelerated the dispersion of the corporation. According to Fusfeld and Bates, the corporate shift in emphasis from production to marketing has led to an orientation that seeks to establish production centers closer to the marketing areas served. This new orientation has meant, according to Fusfeld and Bates, that corporations have shifted job opportunities not only from cen...