Transnational company (corporation)(TNK) - company(corporation), which owns production units in several countries. As well as a company whose foreign activities account for about 25-30% of its total volume and which has branches in two or more countries.

In foreign literature, the following are distinguished signs transnational corporations:

1. the company sells its products in more than one country;

2. its enterprises and branches are located in two or more countries;

On the first stage transnationalizing the activities of large industrial firms, they invested primarily in the raw materials industries of foreign countries, and also created their own distribution and marketing divisions in them. The latter was caused not only by the fact that the creation of its own overseas distribution and marketing divisions required significantly less investment than the creation of manufacturing enterprises abroad, but also by the possible negative impact of new production facilities on the ability to maintain an effective level of capacity utilization at the firm's home enterprises. This influence was especially strong in the production of the same or poorly differentiated products (for example, this factor restrained the growth of production investments of metallurgical firms, while firms in the food and other industries that produced products with certain trademarks were more willing to invest in the creation of manufacturing enterprises Abroad).

Second phase The evolution of the strategy of transnational corporations is associated with the strengthening of the role of foreign production units of transnational corporations and the integration of foreign production and marketing operations. At the same time, foreign production branches specialized mainly in the production of products that were produced by parent companies at the previous stages of the production cycle. With the differentiation of demand and the strengthening of integration processes in different regions of the world, the production branches of transnational corporations are increasingly reoriented to the production of products that are different from those produced by the parent company, and sales divisions - to serve the emerging regional markets.

10. Transnationalization index and characteristics of the leading TNCs based on it.

To determine transnational companies, there is a special index of transnationalization. The calculation of the transnationalization index is carried out according to the following formula:

I T = 1/3 (A I / A + R I / R + S I / S) x 100%,

I T - transnationalization index, %; A I - foreign assets; A - total assets; R I - sales volume of goods and services by foreign affiliates; R - total sales of goods and services; S I - foreign state; S - the total staff of the company.

The index of transnationalization of the 100 leading companies in the world in 2008 averaged 57%. For some companies, especially from small and medium-sized countries, this figure was significantly higher. So, for the Swiss Nestle, it was 93.5%

General Motors
Type of	public company
Year of foundation
Location	USA: Detroit(state Michigan)
Key Figures	Daniel Akerson (Chairman & CEO)
Industry	Automotive industry
Products	Cars and commercial vehicles
turnover	▲ $135.6 billion (2010)
Operating profit	▲ $5.7 billion (2010)
Net profit	▲ $6.5 billion (2010)
Number of employees	202 thousand people (2010)

Globalization of the world economy is the highest, most effective and promising stage in the development of internationalization economic activity combining two directions:

• the creation and development of transnational corporations, whose activities make it possible to bypass numerous barriers (due to the implementation of transfer supplies using domestic prices, favorable production conditions, better consideration of the market situation, optimal distribution and use of profits, etc.);
• coordinated interstate measures for the purposeful formation of a single world market (economic, legal, informational, psychological and political) space.

The globalization of the economy, the expansion of foreign economic relations are manifested primarily in the increasing role and scale of activities of transnational corporations (TNCs).

In general, TNCs are a rather complex and constantly developing phenomenon in the system of world economic relations, requiring close attention, study and international control. Transnational corporations are increasingly becoming a determining factor in deciding the fate of a country in the international system of economic relations. Active production, investment, trading activity TNC allows them to perform the function of an international regulator of production and distribution of products.

The scope of activities of transnational corporations is characterized by a huge scale. Some TNCs (for example, General Electric, ExxonMobil Corporation, General Motors, Ford, Royal Dutch Shell") dispose of funds in excess of the national income of many sovereign nation-states, and the international nature of their operations puts them practically beyond the control of any national authorities.

The world's largest multinational corporations are increasingly penetrating Russian market. The national capital in our country also seeks to be structured into powerful formations, including financial and industrial ones, adequate to international counterparts. Therefore, the issues of transnationalization of companies, the criteria for the formation of TNCs, their scale and role are very relevant for Russian managers.

According to the World Investment Report (2001), prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD), which traditionally studies the activities of TNCs, there are 63 thousand transnational corporations in the world with 800 thousand foreign divisions. In the mid-1990s, there were 40,000 such corporations. They controlled up to 250 thousand subsidiaries outside their countries. The number of TNCs over the past thirty years has increased 9 times (in 1970, only 7 thousand such firms were registered, in 1976 there were 11 thousand with 86 thousand foreign branches, and in 1990 - 24 thousand TNCs) .

On fig. 1 shows the dynamics of the number of multinational companies and their foreign subsidiaries and affiliates over the past decade. Graph based on United Nations database. The information contained in UNCTAD's annual world investment reports usually reflects the picture one or two years before they were published. Therefore, in the figure, taking into account some unevenness in time of the data presented, the year corresponds to the year of publication of the corresponding report.

Rice. one.
Dynamics of the number of TNCs and their foreign affiliates

Analysis of the data presented in fig. 1 shows that over the past two or three years there has been a significant increase in the number of foreign affiliates of TNCs compared to an increase in the number of parent companies. Thus, while the growth rate of transnational companies in 2001 compared to 1999 data was 5%, the number of subsidiaries increased by 60%. The data published for TNCs in 2001 is the same as in 2000, however, the number of foreign affiliates increased by 15.9%. If in the mid-90s, on average, one transnational corporation included 6 subsidiaries, then according to 2001 data, there were already almost 13.

In fairness, it should be noted that the objectivity of data on the number of transnational companies is affected, first of all, by the factor consisting in which companies the researchers attribute to TNCs, with the help of what criteria the degree of transnationality of a corporation is determined.

The term "transnational corporation", "multinational company" (multinational corporation, multinational enterprise, MNC) as a generally accepted began to be used only since 1960.

A transnational corporation is a complex that uses an international approach in its activities and involves the formation of a transnational production, trade and financial complex with a single decision-making center in the home country and with branches in other countries.

A characteristic feature of TNCs is the combination of centralized leadership with a certain degree of independence of its members and those in different countries Oh legal entities and structural divisions(branches, representative offices).

TNCs use a comprehensive global business philosophy that provides for the functioning of the company both at home and abroad. Typically, companies of this kind resort in their economic activities to almost all available operations of international business.

Transnational corporations are international companies. They are international in nature of their activities: they own or control the production of products (or services) outside the home country, in different countries of the world, having their branches there, functioning in accordance with the global strategy developed by the parent company. In this way, The "international approach" of TNCs is determined by the role played by foreign operations in all aspects of the economic life of these companies.

The "multinationality" of the company can also be manifested in the field of ownership. Although the criterion of this "internationality", as a rule, is not the ownership of capital. Except for a few multinational companies in terms of capital, in all the rest the core of ownership is based on the capital of one, and not different countries. Thus, in accordance with the ratings published in the Financial Times newspaper in 2001 (Global 500), only 5 with mixed capital of different countries entered the top 500 world companies. The largest of them are the Anglo-Dutch companies Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever. The "multinationality" of ownership, as a rule, manifests itself in a slightly different way: since the company's property is represented by its shares, the shares of a transnational corporation must be in circulation in many countries. This means that the shares of the parent and subsidiaries must be available for purchase in all countries where the multinational company operates.

Concerning the definition of the concept of "TNC", the criteria for separating them from other firms, disputes are still ongoing. Since it is difficult to determine with certainty whether a company is using an "international approach", narrower working definitions of transnational corporations are applied.

Various research programs have used and are using various criteria for classifying corporations as transnational:

• the number of countries in which the company operates (according to various approaches, the minimum is from 2 to 6 countries);
• a certain minimum number of countries in which production capacity companies;
• a certain size that the company has reached;
• minimum share of foreign operations in the income or sales of the company (usually 25%);
• owning at least 25% of the "voting" shares in three or more countries - the minimum equity participation in foreign equity capital, which would provide the firm with control over economic activity a foreign enterprise and would represent foreign direct investment;
• the multinational composition of the company's personnel, the composition of its top management.

Yes, according to research program at Harvard University The category of transnational companies included companies with more than 6 foreign subsidiaries.

Of particular interest are the criteria for classifying companies as transnational, used by the United Nations, and their recent changes. The UN has long referred to international corporations such firms that had an annual turnover exceeding 100 million dollars, and branches in at least 6 countries. AT last years Several clarifications have been made: international status firms are now evidenced by the size of foreign assets and their share in the total assets of the company, the share of foreign sales in total sales of products and the share of foreign personnel in total strength company personnel. UNCTAD, exploring the activities of TNCs, ranks the largest transnational corporations in terms of foreign assets and analyzes the level of their transnationality.

Considering that the wording of the concept of "transnational corporation" affects the interests of many states, a compromise version of the definition of the concept of "TNC" in the UN states that a TNC is a company:

• comprising units in two or more countries, regardless of legal form and field of activity;
• operating within a decision-making system that allows a coherent policy and a common strategy to be implemented through one or more directing centers;
• in which the individual units are linked by ownership or otherwise so that one or more of them can have significant influence over the activities of others and, in particular, share knowledge, resources and responsibilities with others.

Recently, UNCTAD, somewhat clarifying the above description, includes corporations that include parent enterprises and their foreign branches (subsidiaries) as TNCs, and the parent company controls the assets of other economic units in states outside the parent company's home country, as a rule, by participating in capital. A capital share of at least 10% of ordinary shares is considered as the regulatory lower limit for asset control.

The change in the criteria for classifying companies as transnational, of course, had a significant impact on the dynamics of the number of TNCs given in the UN annual reports.

Information reflecting the "international approach" of the activities of the largest TNCs is presented in Table. 1. In terms of the percentage of sales of products and services sold outside the home country of the parent company, one of the world leaders is the Swiss company Nestle (98.3%). Nippon Mitsubishi Oil Corporation (Nippon Oil Co.Ltd) (83.8%) and DaimlerСhrysler AG (81.1%) are not far behind.

Table 1
Characteristics of the largest TNCs in the world, ranked by the volume of foreign assets (according to 1999 data)

Company	Rank by volume of foreign assets	Foreign assets, % of all company assets	Foreign residents, % of total sales	Foreign personnel, % of the total personnel of the company	Index of trans-nationality, %	Rank by trans-nationality index
General Electric	1	34,8	29,3	46,1	36,7	11
ExxonMobil Corporation	2	68,8	71,8	63,4	68,0	5
Royal Dutch/Shell Group	3	60,3	50,8	57,8	56,3	7
General Motors	4	24,9	26,3	40,8	30,7	14
Ford Motor Company	5	25,0	30,8	52,5	36,1	12
Toyota Motor Corporation	6	36,3	50,1	6,3	30,9	13
DaimlerChrysler AG	7	31,7	81,1	48,3	53,7	10
Total Fina SA	8	63,2	79,8	67,9	70,3	4
IBM	9	51,1	57,5	52,6	53,7	9
BP	10	74,7	69,1	77,3	73,7	3
Nestle S.A.	11	90,0	98,3	97,2	95,2	1
Volkswagen Group	12	51,1	67,7	48,3	55,7	8
Nippon Mitsubishi Oil Corporation (Nippon Oil Co.Ltd)	13	88,7	83,8	74,5	82,4	2
Siemens AG	14	40,0	73,7	56,7	56,8	6

Calculated based on data from World Investment Report 2001: Promoting Linkages, United Nations (UNCTAD), New York and Geneva, 2001.

One of the criteria for classifying a company as transnational is the composition of its top management, which, as a rule, should be formed from nationals of various states in order to exclude a one-sided orientation of the company's activities towards the interests of any one country. To ensure the multinationality of the top management, it is necessary to practice recruiting in the countries where the subsidiaries of TNCs are located, and provide them with the opportunity to advance up to the top management, regardless of their nationality. However, practice shows that most often the highest management personnel of the parent company is formed from representatives of the country of its base, and the top management of subsidiaries also consists of them, using local personnel in ordinary positions. As follows from Table. 1, the clear leader among the largest TNCs in attracting foreign personnel is Nestle (97.2%).

The degree of transnationalization of companies can be characterized transnationality index:

I tr \u003d (A s / A o + P s / P o + W s / W o): 3, where I tr- index of transnationality;
A z- foreign assets;
Oh oh- general assets;
P s- volume of sales of goods and services by foreign affiliates;
By- total sales of goods and services;
W h- a foreign state;
W o- General staff of the company.

When examining the functioning of transnational companies, the United Nations pays the most serious attention to studying the activities largest corporations: UNCTAD annually publishes a list of the 100 largest non-financial TNCs in the world, the 50 largest TNCs from developing countries and the 25 largest transnational corporations in Central and Eastern Europe (until 2001 - Central Europe).

The 100 largest TNCs in the world (0.16% of the total number of transnational corporations) play an important role in international production: according to data published in 2001, they account for approximately 12% of the total foreign assets, 16% of the total foreign sales and 15% of the number of employees employed abroad, taking as 100% the level of total indicators for 63 thousand transnational corporations in the world.

Companies leading the list of 100 largest non-financial TNCs in the world in accordance with the World Investment Report (2001) are presented in Table. 1. The position of the largest TNC, as in the previous year, was retained by General Electric. General Motors moved up from number two to number four. ExxonMobil moved up from number five to number two, while Royal Dutch/Shell Group retained number three. From 1998 to 1999, 13 new TNCs appeared in the list of the largest 100 companies, three companies dropped out of the list due to mergers and acquisitions by other companies (Hoechst, Mobil and Rhone-Poulenc). The top 100 TNCs include three companies from developing countries (Hong Kong, Mexico and Venezuela).

The general characteristics of the largest companies in terms of their foreign assets, foreign sales and foreign personnel are presented in Table. 2.

table 2
General characteristics of the 100 largest non-financial companies in the world

Indicators	1998	1999	Growth rate by 1998, %
Assets, total, billion dollars	4610	5092	10,5
including foreign	1922	2124	10,5
Foreign assets, % of all company assets	41,7	41,7	-
Sales, total, billion dollars	4099	4318	5,3
including foreign	2063	2123	2,9
Foreign sales, % of total sales	50,3	49,2	-1,1
Company personnel, total, people	12741173	13279327	4,2
including foreign	6547719	6050283	-7,6
Foreign personnel, % of the total personnel of the company	51,4	45,6	-5,8
Average transnationality index, %	53,9	52,6	-1,3

Compiled and calculated on the basis of data contained in the World Investment Report 2001: Promoting Linkages, United Nations (UNCTAD), New York and Geneva, 2001. Based on the indicators presented in the table in percent, the column "Growth rate" shows the difference in values ​​for 1999 and 1998.

Dynamics of the transnationality index of the 100 largest financial corporations world over the past ten years is shown in Fig. 2. The figure shows that despite the presence of certain fluctuations in the index (the minimum value was observed in 1993, the maximum - in 1997), its average value, as a rule, exceeds the level of 50%. The change in the transnationality index is influenced, first of all, by the activity of the processes of mergers and acquisitions of companies. Thus, TNCs, absorbing a foreign enterprise, significantly increase their level of transnationality.

Rice. 2.
Dynamics of the transnationality index of the 100 largest non-financial corporations in the world

The parent companies of most of the 100 largest TNCs are located in industrialized countries: 26 in the US, 18 in Japan, 13 in France, 12 in Germany and 8 in the UK. 89 of the world's top 100 nonfinancial corporations (by foreign assets) are based in the Big Three, which includes the European Union, the United States, and Japan (see Chart 3).

Of interest is the information on the average transnationality indices, taking into account the nationality of companies (Table 3).

Table 3
Characteristics of the level of transnationality of companies, taking into account their nationality

	Average index of trans-nationality, %
Region, country	1990	1995	1999
European Union	56,7	66,0	58,7
France	50,9	57,6	55,7
Germany	44,4	56,0	49,6
Great Britain	44,4	56,0	49,6
Netherlands	68,5	79,0	68,2
Italy	38,7	35,8	50,1
Sweden	71,7	80,6	71,8
Finland	-	-	72,5
Spain	-	-	44,8
Belgium	60,4	70,4	-
North America	41,2	46,0	46,2
USA	38,5	41,9	42,7
Canada	79,2	76,5	92,0
Japan	35,5	31,9	38,4
Other countries	73,0	66,9	70,4
Switzerland	84,3	83,6	93,1
Australia	51,8	-	69,3
Hong Kong, China	-	-	38,5
Mexico	-	-	54,6
Venezuela	-	44,4	29,8
New Zealand	62,2	-	-
Norway	58,1	-	-
The Republic of Korea	-	47,7	-
Average index of transnationality for all countries, %	51,1	51,5	52,6

Source: World Investment Report 2001: Promoting Linkages, United Nations (UNCTAD), New York and Geneva, 2001.

Analyzing the transnationality index, taking into account the country of origin of companies, it can be concluded that TNCs from small developed countries (for example, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland) operate more abroad than in the home country of the parent company, since limited the opportunities of national markets make them look for new markets, in contrast to transnational corporations of large states, such as the USA, Japan, Germany, for which the transnationality index is below average.

Rice. 3.
Distribution of the 100 largest non-financial TNCs by country

More than half of the world's largest companies are engaged in the production of electrical and electronic equipment, automobiles, operate in oil industry and in the distribution of petroleum products, produce food and beverages (Table 4). Of the 100 TNCs, 55 are engaged in the above activities, with 32 companies belonging to the first two industries.

Table 4
Characteristics of the distribution of the 100 largest non-financial companies in the world by industry

	Number of companies			Average index of trans-nationality in the industry, %
Industry	1990	1995	1999	1990	1995	1999
Manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment, computers	14	18	18	47,4	49,3	50,7
Automotive industry	13	14	14	35,8	42,3	48,4
Oil industry (exploration and refining), mining	13	14	13	47,3	50,3	53,3
Manufacture of food, beverages and tobacco products	9	12	10	59,0	61,0	78,9
Chemical industry	12	11	7	60,1	63,3	58,4
pharmaceutical industry	6	6	7	66,1	63,1	62,4
Diversified companies	2	2	6	29,7	43,6	38,7
Trade	7	5	4	32,4	30,5	17,9
Telecommunications industry	2	5	3	46,2	46,3	33,3
Metallurgy	6	2	1	55,1	27,9	43,5
Construction	4	3	2	58,8	67,8	73,2
Mass media	2	2	2	82,6	83,4	86,9
Other industries	10	6	13	-	-	-

Compiled from data in World Investment Report 2001: Promoting Linkages, United Nations (UNCTAD), New York and Geneva, 2001.

When examining the level of transnationality in individual industries, it should be noted that the highest index is in the production of food, beverages and tobacco products, the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Below the average level of transnationalization in the automotive industry, the telecommunications industry. Over the past decade, the lowest index was observed in trading TNCs.

To characterize the international approach in the activities of companies, it is possible to use the so-called network spread index - NSI (Network Spread Index). This index is calculated as the ratio (as a percentage) of the number foreign countries, in which the TNC operates (locates production, conducts economic activities, etc.), to the total number of countries in which the corporation could potentially conduct activities. At present, the number of such countries is 187. An analysis of the NSI index for the 100 largest companies confirms the conclusion formulated above: countries that are small in terms of territory are more active than large states in developing foreign markets (see Table 5).

Table 5
Characteristics of the network spread index - NSI (Network Spread Index) in the world's largest non-financial corporations, taking into account their country affiliation

Country	Network spread index - NSI, %	Rank
Switzerland	25,80	1
Netherlands	21,79	2
Great Britain	19,93	3
France	19,59	4
Germany	18,89	5
Italy	17,16	6
Sweden	17,11	7
Japan	14,29	8
USA	13,18	9
Finland	12,30	10
Canada	8,56	11
Australia	6,42	12
Spain	5,88	13
Venezuela	2,67	14
Hong Kong, China	1,07	15
Average NSI	15,63

To assess the involvement of a company in the production of goods and services abroad, the transnationality index, which makes it possible to compare the size of economic activity within and beyond national borders. The transnationality index is based on a comparison of the size of a company's business activities at home and abroad.

UNCTAD calculates this index as the arithmetic average of three values: the share of assets abroad in the total assets of the company; share of sales abroad in total sales; the share of personnel employed at foreign enterprises in the total number of the company's personnel. Global companies have a significantly higher transnationality index compared to conventional TNCs. According to World Investment Report 2010, for the top 100 TNCs in the world, the index of internationality is now close to the average value of 63%, for TNCs from the EU included in this list, it was even 67.6% in 2008.

The concentration of highly qualified personnel, scientific and technical knowledge and experience, the global organization of management allow such companies to optimally locate sources of logistics, production and marketing. By virtue of their transnational structure, they can benefit from country differences in market conditions, economic policies, levels of taxes and import duties, rates wages, technical and environmental standards, etc. Moreover, they are able to smooth out or enhance these differences to a certain extent.

Modern economic system is influenced by the processes of transnationalization of production and capital, movable by TNCs. The interdependence of countries is growing due to the growing globalization, the national sovereignty of states is decreasing, supranational entities appear - global corporations.

According to UNCTAD, in 2008 there were 82,000 TNCs in the world, they controlled 810,000 foreign affiliates. Among them, no more than 2–3 thousand first-class TNCs, including approximately 500 top-tier TNCs and 100–150 largest transnational banks (TNB) and financial corporations, play a truly leading role in the world economy and the process of globalization. The top 100 TNCs (less than 0.2% of their total number) control 12% of the total foreign assets and 16% of the total foreign sales. Currently, more than a third of the world's GDP and more than 75% of global trade is controlled by the five hundred largest TNCs. In 2012, about 82 thousand TNCs and 810 thousand of their foreign affiliates provided employment for 72 million people. The volume of their sales amounted to 26 trillion dollars, TNC enterprises created 7 trillion dollars of added value (about 9% of the gross domestic product of the world) . Top 10 TNCs earn more income than all the countries of the African continent. Already about 10 years ago TNCs controlled 80% of licenses and patents for new inventions.

Leading TNCs, especially those that occupy dominant positions in high-tech, future-oriented industries (electronics, aerospace, advanced engineering sectors, production of new materials, etc.), define the face of today's global economy and serve " calling card for countries of origin.

About 80% of existing TNCs come from advanced countries, the rest - from developing and countries with economies in transition. The top 500 TNCs today account for over 1/3 of manufacturing exports, 3/4 of commodity trade, and 4/5 of new technology trade. The latter is quite natural, since the share of TNCs covered by UNCTAD statistics in global R&D expenditures reaches at least half, and in world commercial expenditures for the same purposes - at least 2/3.

The role of TNCs in world trade, production, and finance continues to grow steadily. At the same time, the main forces are concentrated in the 100 largest TNCs in the world, which have enormous economic power. The result of the dominance of these giants, their economic policy is a shift in the proportions of world production and sales. Thus, a few global corporations actually have a decisive influence on the development of the main branches of the world economy and on the nature of the international division of labor.

Involving many countries where their foreign subsidiaries are based in production chains, changing the internal division of labor, they seem to impose it on the traditionally existing ties between countries, transforming, and often deforming them.

The following features can be identified that distinguish global TNCs from the general mass of companies operating in foreign markets:

• detachment from the national soil, the global nature of intra-company planning, as well as supply and marketing operations, under centralized private control;
• use of the international unit division of labor within the framework of a system of technologically interconnected enterprises in different countries of the world exchanging unfinished products at non-commercial, transfer prices;
• division of markets between branches and their centralized technological support.

An analysis of the activities of TNCs allows us to distinguish several types of them.

• 1. Ethnocentric TNCs create branches abroad to ensure the supply of raw materials or markets, but foreign markets remain for them, first of all, a continuation of their domestic market.
• 2. For polycentric companies, it is typical that the external market is no less, and often a more important sector of their activity compared to the domestic market. Their overseas subsidiaries produce most of their products.
• 3. Regiocentric TNCs are especially popular in integration groupings. They no longer focus on the markets of individual countries, but on entire regions, for example, on the entire Western Europe, although foreign branches in this case are also located in separate countries.
• 4. Geocentric companies are the most mature type of TNCs, it is most typical for those TNCs that are, as it were, a decentralized federation of regional branches.

A significant increase in foreign production and sales of the largest TNCs has led to a high level of global transnationalization of production and capital. The main goal of establishing foreign subsidiaries is to capture new markets in developed and developing countries. In general, the activities of TNCs, their economic policy are aimed at suppressing competition from other companies and occupying a dominant position in the world commodity markets. From this point of view, TNCs are a destructive force for medium and small businesses that cannot compete with the world's giants. A special feature of TNCs on the modern stage is a certain duality of their interests: on the one hand, they seek greater trade liberalization and democratization of global economic relations On the other hand, the activities of TNCs are more like a planned economy, where domestic prices are set, dictated by the strategy of TNCs, and not by free market mechanisms.

Relying on their economic power and an extensive network of foreign divisions, sometimes located in dozens of countries, TNCs naturally strive to increase their political influence. There are cases in history when TNCs allocated large funds to lobby their interests, to adopt or not to adopt certain laws. Global companies represent a special, global power on a global scale, the sphere of which knows no state borders. At the same time, the greater the element of multinational participation in such a company, the more it seeks to free itself from the restrictive influence of the governments of the countries on whose territory its activities extend.

To classify corporations as transnational, the following criteria are usually used:

• the number of countries in which the corporation operates (at least two to six or more countries);
• a certain number of countries in which the corporation's production facilities are located;
• a certain amount of capitalization that the corporation has reached;
• · a minimum share of foreign operations in the income or sales of the corporation (as a rule, 25%);
• · owning at least 25% of voting shares in three or more countries;
• · the international composition of the staff and senior management of the corporation.

It is enough for a firm to have at least one of the listed signs to fall into the category of transnational corporations. Some large companies have all of these features at the same time.

AT modern world the line between transnational and conventional corporations is rather arbitrary, since as the globalization of the economy develops, internationalization of sales markets, production, and property takes place. Due to the fact that researchers use different quantitative criteria for identifying TNCs, the scientific literature gives very different data on the number of TNCs and the scale of their activities. According to the scale of activity, all TNCs are divided into large and small. A conditional criterion is the size of the annual turnover: for example, in the 1980s, only those that had an annual turnover of more than $ 1 billion were classified as large TNCs. If small TNCs have an average of 3-4 foreign branches, then for large TNCs their number is measured tens and even hundreds.

The diversity of TNCs operating in the world can be classified according to a number of criteria. The main ones are: country of origin, industry focus, size, level of transnationalization. The practical significance of the classification of TNCs lies in the fact that it allows one or another feature to more objectively assess the advantages and disadvantages of placing specific corporations in the host country.

Country of origin.

The country of origin of a TNC is determined by the nationality of the capital in its controlling stake, assets. As a rule, it coincides with the nationality of the home country of the parent company of the corporation. For TNCs in developed countries, this is private capital. For TNCs in developing countries, a certain (sometimes significant) part in the capital structure may belong to the state. This is due to the fact that initially they were created on the basis of nationalized foreign property or state enterprises. Their goal was not so much to penetrate into the economy of other countries, but to create the basis for the development of national industry, the rise of the country's economy.

Industry focus.

The sectoral orientation of TNCs is determined by the main area of ​​its activity. On this basis, raw materials TNCs, corporations operating in the basic and secondary industries of the manufacturing industry, and industrial conglomerates are distinguished. Currently, transnational corporations retain their position in the basic sectors of the mining and manufacturing industries. These are areas of activity that require significant investment. In 2003, 256 of the world's 500 largest transnational corporations were active in such areas as electronics, computers, communications, food, beverages and tobacco, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, as well as in the service sector. commercial services, including on the Internet.

Multinational corporations perform abroad different kinds Research and development work: adaptive, starting from basic auxiliary processes and ending with the modification and improvement of imported technologies; innovative, related to the development of new products or processes for local, regional and global markets; technological monitoring carried out by a specially created division (department) in the branch, which monitors the development of technologies in foreign markets and learns from leading innovative enterprises and customers. The choice of one or another type of R&D and their industry specialization depend on the region, at what level of development the host country is located. For example, Southeast Asia is dominated by innovative R&D related to computers and electronics, India is dominated by the services sector (especially software), in Brazil and Mexico with the production of chemicals and transport equipment.

For transnational corporations of the conglomerate type, in order to determine their specialization, they distinguish the so-called industry A, which the United Nations characterizes as having a significant amount of foreign assets, the largest number overseas sales and the largest number of employees abroad. It is in this industry that the largest amount of investments of the corporation is directed, and it is it that gives highest profit corporations. The basis for classifying a particular industry of TNCs as industry A is the calculation of the index B - the transnationalization index for individual industries of the corporation. This index is recommended by UNCTAD (an organ of the UN General Assembly).

The calculation of the transnationalization index is carried out according to the following formula:

With regard to TNCs as a whole, the economic meaning of this indicator lies in the fact that it can be used to determine what role this or that TNC plays in the global economy. This is an integral indicator calculated as a percentage. By its value, one can determine and compare the activity of TNCs abroad and in the domestic market of the home country. As a rule, the higher the index B, the more diversified the activities of TNCs abroad. It is interesting to note that there is no direct relationship between the size of TNCs and the level of transnationalization. Moreover, small TNCs are often more transnational. According to UNCTAD, in a sample of 50 small and medium-sized TNCs, the transnationalization index was 50%.

The size of the multinational corporation.

Classification sign, which is determined according to the UNCTAD methodology by the size of their foreign assets. It is this parameter that underlies the diversification of TNCs into the largest, large, medium and small. TNCs with assets of more than $10 billion are considered large. The vast majority of the total number of TNCs (over 90%) belongs to medium and small corporations. According to the UN classification, these include companies with less than 500 employees in the country of residence. In practice, there are TNCs with a total number of employees of less than 50 people. The advantage of small TNCs is their ability to quickly adapt to changing market conditions. They can act in alliance with large TNCs, forming various kinds of concerns.

In the world literature on organization and management, a distinction is made between multinational, global, international and actually transnational companies. The essence of these differences is presented in the table.

Table 1. Types and main characteristics of TNCs

Transnationalization Index

When analyzing TNCs, the concept of "transnationalization index" is used, which can be of two types.

The transnationalization index of a company reflects the degree of involvement of a particular TNC in the production of goods and services abroad. It is calculated as the sum of three quantities: the share of assets abroad in the total assets of the TNC, the share of sales abroad in the total sales of this corporation, the share of personnel abroad in the total number of employees of this TNC. In 2003 The index of transnationalization of the top 100 TNCs in the world averaged 56%, although it was much higher for many TNCs, especially for TNCs from small and medium-sized countries.

The country's transnationalization index assesses the importance of foreign TNCs for a particular country. It is calculated as the sum of four quantities: the share of direct foreign investment in all capital investments of the country, the ratio of foreign direct investment accumulated in the country to the country's GDP, the share of branches of foreign corporations in the production of the country's GDP, the share of employees in these branches in the total number of people employed in the country. The most transnationalized are small developed countries and territories. In 2002 these were Hong Kong (82%), Belgium and Luxembourg (77%), Ireland (69%), Singapore (60%). Other countries were less transnationalized - Estonia (39%), Hungary (30%), Canada and Spain (21% each), Russia (19%), USA (18%), Japan (1%).

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