Separation between firms’ headquarters and domiciles: an intraprovincial cross-city analysis

The separation of firms’ domiciles from their headquarters has not received much attention from the academic community. This separation may decrease the accuracy of domicile-based economic data; however, domiciles that differ significantly from corporate entities present an opportunity for the development of location theory. This study analyzes the separation characteristics between headquarters and domiciles of Chinese listed companies across cities within provinces and their formation process – inconsistent migration of both – to understand the differences between domiciles and headquarters in terms of spatial distribution and migration. The results show that 105 listed companies have headquarters and registered locations in different cities within provinces as of 2018. Their headquarters tend to be concentrated in a few economically developed cities (such as provincial capitals), while their domiciles are dispersed among many ordinary prefecture-level cities. Inconsistent cross-city migration of headquarters and domiciles is the main cause of intraprovincial, cross-city separation. Headquarters move much more frequently than domiciles and move mainly to higher-grade and more economically developed cities, while domiciles move mainly to ordinary cities. Quadratic Assignment Procedure correlation analysis also confirms the opposite tendencies of headquarters and domicile migration.