Branch plant economy

A branch plant economy is an economy that hosts many branch plants (i.e. factories or firms near the base of a supply chain/command chain), but does not host headquarters.^[1][2] In particular, the term was used in arguments that countries must develop independent companies, as a form of economic nationalism, to create better jobs and avoid having managerial positions filled only by corporate workers from outside the country.^[1]

The term was used in the 1970s to describe Canadian reliance on US headquartered corporations or Scottish reliance on English-headquartered corporations^[1] but may have fallen out of mainstream use.^{[citation needed]} Some opinion pieces still use the terminology to decry reliance on outside states, especially with regards to Canada’s relationship with the United States.^[3][4]