Summary of variables used to categorize cities into Hymer’s (1972) tiers for automotive and commercial banking foreign direct investment
| Evaluation criteria | Category frequency and descriptive statistics | Source | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | Automotive investments | Commercial banking investments | |||
| City overall international connectivity | The GaWC ranking of world cities provides an indication of global or world city membership, the higher tier cities are more likely to be tier 1 cities and the lower tier cities are more likely to be tier 2 cities or tier 3 cities | Alpha++ Alpha+ Alpha Alpha− Beta+ Beta Beta− Gamma+ Gamma Gamma− High Sufficiency Sufficiency No category | 4 11 13 18 18 5 10 8 1 5 7 13 105 | Globalization and World Cities Research Network (www.lboro.com/gawc) | |
| Capital market present | A capital market indicates a tier 1 or 2 city, in combination with high connectivity a tier 1 city is more likely, with low connectivity a tier 2 city | Present: Not present: Unclear/other: | 66 57 95 | World Stock Exchanges (www.world-stock-exchanges.net) | |
| Capital of country | On the other hand, a tier 2 city must have at least an airport or seaport. If it is a capital of a country, then it is clearly a tier 2 city. A tier III city will never have an airport and will never be a capital, but it may have a seaport | Will be associated with tier 1 or 2 cities, distinguished by connectivity | Present: Not present: Unclear/other: | 53 165 0 | World Capitals (www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855603.html) |
| University present | The presence of top ranked universities is expected to be associated with tier 1 cities | Present: Not present: Unclear/other: | 82 136 0 | Shanghai Ranking Top University Ranking (www.shanghairanking.com) | |
| Presence of airport | The more central the city in the global air travel network the more likely it is tier 1 or tier 2 | Present: Not present: Unclear/other: | 66 58 94 | The A-Z Group (https://azfreight.com/) | |
| Presence of seaport | The presence of a seaport is expected to be associated with tier 2 and 3 cities | Present: Not present: Unclear/other: | 69 142 7 | World Port Source (www.worldportsource.com) | |
| Population (2000–2013) (2014–2021) | If the population is larger than 2 million, then the city is a tier 2 city | Tier 2 cities have a population of at least one and a half million people | Min: Mean: Max: | 229 3.7 M 35.4 M | City Population OECD (http://stats.oecd.org) Other (www.citypopulation.de) |
| Evaluation criteria | Category frequency and descriptive statistics | Source | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | Automotive investments | Commercial banking investments | |||
| City overall international connectivity | The GaWC ranking of world cities provides an indication of global or world city membership, the higher tier cities are more likely to be tier 1 cities and the lower tier cities are more likely to be tier 2 cities or tier 3 cities | Alpha++ | 4 | Globalization and World Cities Research Network ( | |
| Capital market present | A capital market indicates a tier 1 or 2 city, in combination with high connectivity a tier 1 city is more likely, with low connectivity a tier 2 city | Present: | 66 | World Stock Exchanges | |
| Capital of country | On the other hand, a tier 2 city must have at least an airport or seaport. If it is a capital of a country, then it is clearly a tier 2 city. A tier III city will never have an airport and will never be a capital, but it may have a seaport | Will be associated with tier 1 or 2 cities, distinguished by connectivity | Present: | 53 | World Capitals ( |
| University present | The presence of top ranked universities is expected to be associated with tier 1 cities | Present: | 82 | Shanghai Ranking Top University Ranking | |
| Presence of airport | The more central the city in the global air travel network the more likely it is tier 1 or tier 2 | Present: | 66 | The A-Z Group | |
| Presence of seaport | The presence of a seaport is expected to be associated with tier 2 and 3 cities | Present: | 69 | World Port Source ( | |
| Population (2000–2013) | If the population is larger than 2 million, then the city is a tier 2 city | Tier 2 cities have a population of at least one and a half million people | Min: | 229 | City Population |
Note:
See Supplementary_Online_Materials_Document_1_-_Classification_of_Cities and Supplementary_Online_Materials_Document_2_-_Cities Classification Data