Spatial Configuration of Business Activities of Banking: A Case Study of a Cooperate Bank in Guangzhou

Abstract

Orthodox studies on CBD are mainly based on official statistics while insufficient attention has been paid to the micro-mechanism within CBD. Especially, rarely do researchers address the features of the business activities within CBD and the impact of these activities on the formation of CBD and how the mechanism works. This paper takes a corporate bank in Tianhebei CBD Guangzhou as an example to analyze its business activities spatial patterns. Moreover, it explains why such spatial patterns form by spelling out the spatial behavior mechanism of banking industry and discusses how the spatial patterns of business industries and their micro-behavior-mechanism influence the evolution of CBD. In this way, it aims to provide reference for guiding the beneficial reciprocal development between urban business industries and CBD. The case study suggests that the number of clients and frequency of business connections diminish as the distance from the bank increases though the economic development level and the effect of agglomeration also exerts impact and therefore there might be fluctuation on the curve. The analysis also finds that the business activities of banking industries are highly concentrated within CBD at micro level. Besides the most-mentioned cause -agglomeration economy effect, it is argued that the business mode of banking industry is also relevant to a great extent. The paper concludes that the needs of business activities connections and the cooperation among various supporting business industries are the two important factors contributing to the concentration of business industries in CBD. 以廣州天河北CBD某企業銀行為例,通過收集其客戶資料和短期貸款業務信息,結合深度訪談,分析該企業銀行的基本情況、與客戶的商務活動強度及其商務活動空間形態,并從銀行業的空間行為機制等微觀角度解釋其成因,探討商務產業的空間形態與微觀行為機制對CBD發展演變的影響。研究表明,在宏觀層面,銀行客戶和業務聯系的分布總體上存在一定的空間遞減規律,但也受地區經濟發展水平、聚集經濟區位以及銀行自身的業務定位和市場開拓等的影響;在微觀層面,銀行業的商務活動在CBD內部高度集聚,其成因除了受以往分析的聚集經濟作用外,還與銀行業的業務模式密切相關。將銀行業業務模式劃分為與客戶的商務活動聯系模式和與輔助性生產性服務業商務活動聯系模式兩大類,前者的一對多業務模式和后者的客戶媒介模式是促成CBD中以銀行業為首的商務集聚的主要內在機制之一。具體而言,面對面業務的需求是CBD商務產業集聚的主要原因之一,多機構或多部門的協作要求,形成協作網絡是產業集聚的另一重要原因,銀行在CBD商務集聚中扮演著重要的角色。