Regional headquarters located in a post-Brexit United Kingdom; to leave or not to leave?

Abstract

On June 23th a referendum was held on whether the UK should stay in the European Union. The majority of the British voters preferred a Brexit. This outcome came as a shock to many. In the months leading up to the referendum, many implications (positive and negative) were widely discussed in the media. Now Brexit is going to happen, these implications can be brought to the test. In this research, Brexit implications are being linked to regional headquarters activity in the UK. The main focus was to find out whether regional headquarters are leaving the UK because of Brexit.

To come to a comprehensive answer, a database of regional headquarters, of US firms, located in the UK was constructed. This dataset served as the main pool from which survey and interview data could be distracted. The first phase of research consisted of survey data, obtained in the weeks leading up to the Brexit referendum. This data was analysed and linked to follow-up interview data that was collected about two months after the referendum was held.

This research’s result was a valuable link between Brexit implications and regional headquarters activities. As far as the main research question concerns; no direct linked was found between Brexit and relocations of regional headquarters. Survey outcomes suggested that regional headquarters expected to be negatively impacted by Brexit, but this would not led many to leave the UK. The general tendency in post-referendum interviews was one of confidence and patience. However, whether or not regional headquarters will move out of the UK will also be determined by the exit agreements the UK and the EU will agree upon over the next few years. For regional headquarters the most important Brexit implications seems to be changes in current EU regulations. These changes will determine to what extent regional headquarter activity will remain in the UK. Exit agreements are expected to take shape over the next few years.