Business connectivity, air transport and the urban hierarchy: A case study in East Asia Hidenobu Matsumoto a , Koji Domae a , Kevin O'Connor b a Graduate School of Maritime Sciences, Kobe University, 5-1-1, Fukae-minami-machi, Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-0022, Japan b Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia abstract article info Article history: Received 22 January 2016 Received in revised form 4 May 2016 Accepted 8 May 2016 Available online xxxx This paper explores the effect of business connectivity between cities on their air traffic connections, and in turn on their place in a region's urban hierarchy. Its focus of attention is East Asia, where economic development is underpinned by a complex set of international flows of trade and investment. Business connectivity is a key part of these flows. The research incorporates a measure of business connections in a regression model that pre- viously relied on GDP per head, population and distance to account for international air links. Results confirm that business connectivity is a more important influence on the level of international air links within East Asia, and plays a major role in explaining the changes in city rank over time. The paper concludes with suggestions that possible incorporation of domestic air travel (itself larger than the intra-regional flows in this region) could en- rich the insight of this approach. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: International air links Business connectivity Urban hierarchy Gravity model and East Asia 1. Introduction Asia now stands as the largest aviation market on the globe. That po- sition is underpinned by an intensive network of connections within the region, which is an outcome of an economic development experience that has bound together the countries and cities with flows of invest- ment, trade and tourism. This process has lifted incomes and, as a result, has been felt in increases in air travel. However, those increases have also been shaped by the business linkages that initiate and manage the intra-regional trade and investment links. This effect has been espe- cially intense in the long corridor along the eastern edge of Asia, stretching from Japan in the north to Indonesia and Thailand in the south. The current paper develops insight on this perspective by focus- ing attention on the high-level business service connections of the region's cities. The core idea is that changes in a city's business connec- tions lie behind changes in its rank in the air transport hierarchy in its region. 2. Air transport networks and city hierarchies Air transport and economic development are strongly intertwined. Matsumoto (2004, 2007) illustrated the strength of that link by showing that GDP per head and population of a city were significant predictors of the level of inter-city air traffic within and between regions of the globe. To refine the way economic activity shapes the outcome for individual cities, we can draw on the substantial research that has connected busi- ness services, the location of multi-national firms and air transport (Taylor et al., 2002; Alderson et al., 2010; Derudder et al., 2013; Liu et al., 2013, 2014). Keeling (1995) provided an initial insight on the way hierarchies of global cities (in terms of international air traffic flows) closely matched the location of headquarters of multi-national firms. Sassen (2006) underpinned that empirical observation by show- ing the connections between the operations of multi-national firms and advanced business services together would influence air connections between cities. Liu et al. (2013) confirmed that insight, showing cities with well-developed aviation networks attract more globalized business service firms, while globalized business service firms in turn stimulate the development of aviation networks. A connection between these perspectives is expressed in the study of Poole (2010), which showed the strong associations between inter- national business travel (involving employees of business service firms) and trade flows. Van de Vijver et al. (2014) confirmed the strength of that connection in the Asia-Pacific region. The trade flows identified by Van de Vijver et al. (2014) have been integral to the devel- opment of East Asia, as global manufacturing production systems emerged from around 1960 and trade within the region expanded rap- idly (Ozawa, 2006; Athukorala and Hill, 2010). These flows began as Japanese corporations invested in South East Asian countries; their ap- proach was followed by Korean and Taiwanese firms, and today there are multi-directional flows across the region, in particular, into and out of China. In a recent overview, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (2012) described the “international division of pro- duction” within the region, which is reflected in a trade structure where intermediary goods are exported within the region and final Journal of Transport Geography 54 (2016) 132–139 E-mail addresses: matumoto@maritime.kobe-u.ac.jp (H. Matsumoto), 126w314w@ stu.kobe-u.ac.jp (K. Domae), Kevin.oconnor@unimelb.edu.au (K. O'Connor). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.05.005 0966-6923/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Transport Geography journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo