Least-cost approach in industrial location is associated with:

The correct answer is Weber. Alfred Weber formulated a theory of industrial location in 1909, in which an industry is located where the transportation costs of raw materials and the final product are a minimum.The theory was created to determine the location of manufacturing plants.According to the theory, plants will be located to maximize profits and minimize costs.He singled out two special cases.In one the weight of the final product is less than the weight of the raw material going into making the product. This is the weight LOSS case.On the other, the final product is heavier than the raw material that requires transport. Usually, this is a case of some ubiquitous (everywhere available) raw material such as WATER being incorporated into the product. This is called the weight-gaining case. In 1933, Walter Christaller introduced Central Place Theory (CPT) as a way to explain the location, number, and size of settlements, where these locations acted as central places that provided services to surrounding areas.Central Place Theory sought to explain the economic relationships of cities with smaller settlements.D. M. Smith in his theory has provided a theoretical framework for industrial location.His theory is also known as the ‘Area-Cost Curve Theory’.Smith has attempted to utilize the perfect competition-least cost approach of Weber with some reference to the monopolistic competition-market area approach of Losch.Richard Hartshorne in his seminal proposed the theory of areal DIFFERENTIATION.'The Nature of Geography' (1939) emphasized that the fundamental focus of the. the geographical inquiry is the study of differential characteristics of the EARTH surface, which he. called areal differentiation.