Corporate Headquarters in the DACH region: A Benchmarking Study of Vienna, Zurich, and Munich

Corporate Headquarters (HQs) of large multinational corporations are important economic actors in the location. Decision-making of those organizations culminates in the Corporate HQ, which is also the provider of high-quality employment and business opportunities for related businesses such as accounting firms, banks, start-ups, or owners of office properties. In this short descriptive study, we compare the cities and metropolitan areas of Vienna, Zurich, and Munich with regards to the number of Corporate HQs it hosts and what kind of firms are governed by those HQs. The key results are twofold. First, Vienna is substantially less densely populated by Corporate HQs of large firms than Zurich or Munich. Second, Vienna’s Corporate HQs run firms that are, on average, considerably smaller than those run from Zurich or Munich. We refrain from interpreting these findings in this report and refer to future studies in which we plan to discuss the findings in greater detail. Yet, our opinion is that our finding is an indicator of Vienna’s competitive disadvantage with negative implications for related businesses (accounting firms, banks, start-ups, etc.).