Introduction
The inevitable growth of globalisation over the past few decades has gradually created the occurrence we now know as the “Trans-national Corporation (TNCs)”. This essay will aim to the highlight and explain the situation in which nation states are continually being reformed by these TNCs.
Globalisation & the Role of Technology
Globalisation is the process of allowing goods, financial and investments markets to operate across national borders due to deregulation, improved communications, infrastructure and technology.
Technology is the “heart” of globalisation. The evolution of technology has sped up the gradual increase in globalisation. As companies build better communication channels, more information can be sent around the world to more remote locations allowing corporations to reach wider markets. Newer and faster modes of transport have allowed more goods and services to be exported around the world, again allowing corporations to reach a wider scope of the world. Technology has also increased the mobility of labour as workers can relocate to areas with better employment opportunities; and transnationals can move to areas with better skilled/cheaper labour.
Transnational Corporations & Objectives
A transnational corporation is a firm that has the power to coordinate and control operations of other subsidiaries in more than one country.” [Dicken, (2011)].
Many “international” corporations are becoming globally integrated meaning they are able to source & allocate their resources globally from and to countries which are more efficient in particular processes of the value chain. An example of a transnational corporation using an integrated strategy would be IBM which operates in over 170 countries. They used to have many “mini IBM’s” in all these countries with each having its own functional area;
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