Blackwell Reference Online

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The term transnational corporation (TNC) is often used interchangeably with that of multinational corporation (MNC) or multinational enterprise (MNE) to mean a firm that owns or controls income- generating assets in more than one country. In the more exacting definition of Bartlett and Ghoshal (1989) the multinational organizational mode is described as one subset of the TNC (see below). Other transnational organizations include intergovernmental bodies such as the United Nations Organization (UNO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), regulatory or standard-setting agencies such as the Basle Group of Bankers, and a rapidly expanding group of “voluntary” associations known as non-government organizations (NGOs). The focus here, however, will be on TNCs rather than these latter forms of cross-national governance. In popular usage, the TNC is usually seen as being extremely large in terms of its level of employment, financial turnover, and ownership of assets. Indeed, it is usual to compare the turnover and assets of the top TNCs such as General Electric or Wal-Mart with the gross domestic product of nation-states. While not wishing to deny the vividness of this crude comparison, we should be aware of its analytical limitations in assessing both the relative resources of these institutions and the nature of their authority. Also, there are an increasing number of small firms that ... log in or subscribe to read full text