The actuality of the topic. Fifty-one of the largest one-hundred economies in the world are corporations. Transnational corporations hold ninety percent of all technology and product patents worldwide, and are involved in 70 percent of world trade. They employ in their foreign affiliates about 80 million people. The United Nations has justly described these corporations as “the productive core of the globalizing world economy.”
I.A.Karimov, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, had already marked that “The XXIst century, obviously, will be the century of globalization in the international relations. In these conditions, the process of integration, the expansion of participation of sovereign states at the international institutes and the organizations are to be considered not only as historical inevitability, but also as a powerful factor of stability”. No wonder, in any sphere it is impossible not to come across to the influence of globalization.
It is known that, currently, the world states, almost all of them, can’t ensure anymore a stable development and growth based only their own forces. World governments perceive that the deepening of relations between countries, and also the more active and effective involving and integrating in the global economic cycle is the key factor of economic prosperity. Unfortunately, not all states can act alone on the world arena, especially the small ones. Some countries need support from other states, more experienced, stronger and with greater financial strength.
The impact of globalization can be seen in any country’s national economy. It is tough to describe national economies, world economy without globalization. The volume of world economy grows steadily. According to World Trade Organization data, the volume of world trade has been growing much faster since 1950 than ever. During 1950-2000, world trade has grown 20 times and manufacture 6 times.
In the process of economic globalization, on the arena of international economic relations appear new actors. One of them is transnational corporations that move their capital from several countries of the world under the influence of different factors and create an economic chain through which are moving enormous innovations and financial flows.
Transnationalization of production, its expansion outside their home state, has a significant impact on national economies, establishing their place in the world work division.
However, parallel with the development of external economic relations, is changing the state's role and its functions. The state start to gain new functions, functions appearing as result of the states competition in the process of attracting foreign capital flows in the national economy.
Attracting transnational corporations in the national economy is today the main objective of the competition process between states. World states, especially smaller ones, in development or in transition, being enticed by the financial sources of TNCs, are involved in an increasingly fierce battle to attract the necessary capital in the country. Paradoxically, but eventually also TNCs are those which take advantage of it the most.
Thus, addressing the impact of this process needs to be done multilaterally, to find the optimum solution of how to attract foreign capital flows in the national economy at the present stage, focusing on their efficiency and quality.
In last decades a lot of attention is given to transnational corporations. Today there is nearly no considerable process in world economy which would occur without the participation of transnational corporations. The transnational corporations have turned to the ubiquitous force forming modern and future shape of the world. They accept direct and indirect participation in world political and economical process.
TNCs carry out their activity in world economy system, but their influence extends on world politics that allows to recognize TNCs along with the national states, the international organizations. TNCs are not absolutely new phenomenon, and represent the special form of display of general law of development of capitalism, aspiration of the capital to the external economic expansion in the form of direct foreign investments. The manufacture which is carried out abroad, has a number of advantages which follow from distinctions of political and economic conditions between the country - basing of the TNC and a host country where branches of TNCs settle down in this plan: degree of security and cost of extraction and processing of natural resources; rates of wages of work; the labor legislation; the taxation; exchange rate; ecological standards; a political mode; the political culture, etc. These distinctions increase maneuverability of the multinational corporation on a world scene.
The basic line of TNCs - global operations. Huge thing for TNCs is the world market. Therefore the expansion of TNC is carried out internationally.
From the very beginning of TNCs' existence became object of rough economic discussions. One their activity was estimated as destructive, the emphasize became on negative consequences of industrialization. Others attributed a role of the main tool of world progress.
70th years have passed under the sign of negative estimations for TNCs as a factor of an aggravation of economic, political and social contradictions.
In 80th years, appreciable role of the TNCs was observed in economic development and in the permission of political and social problems. Previously, it came with the recognition of their enormous potential, a huge role in development of scientific and technical progress.
However, economic growth of TNCs on the political and social value is ambiguous. From the economic point of view it conducts to the growth of productivity and labor force, escalating of capacities of the goods and services, manufacture and national income. On the other hand, typical line of "transnational economy" is strong contrast between large TNC and the country as a whole with serious difficulties: unstable development of manufacture, inflation, unemployment, etc. From the social point of view, economic growth of the transnational corporation increases vacancy for the unemployment and capital opposition. They arrange tough policy concerning employment. During economic crises TNCs even are inclined to the big reduction of the personnel that conducts to a condition of sharp confrontation with trade unions. In other cases - the transnational corporations, on the contrary, guide social intensity in a society.
The object of my work is the activity of transnational corporations in the world economy.
The subject – the tendency of TNCs’ development during the world financial crisis.
The purpose of the given work - to consider the tendencies of TNCs’ development in the conditions of world financial crisis in modern international economic relations.
For this purpose it is necessary to allocate following themain tasks:
1. To open the concept and essence of the transnational corporation;
2. To define the role of transnational corporations in globalization;
3. The impact of world financial crisis to the activity of the activities of transnational corporations;
4. The reaction of TNCs to crisis.
The exact standard definition of the transnational corporation does not exist till now. Terminological diversity of the concept both in English-speaking (or Uzbek), and in the foreign literature remains. It can be seen in various variants of word combinations - a corporation, a company, an enterprise, a firm in a combination with adjectives - transnational, multinational, international, global etc. This terminological diversity of natural, because it reflects the attempt to find an adequate reflection of the new features that are in the field of international economic relations have gained this monopoly. Transnational corporations are basically “national” on the capital and “international” on the field of activity. The part "trans" emphasizes this quality - the border crossing of goods and capital flows. I will give several definitions for TNC:
Transnational corporations (TNCs) are incorporated or unincorporated enterprises comprising parent enterprises and their foreign affiliates. A parent enterprise is defined as an enterprise that controls assets of other entities in countries other than its home country, usually by owning a certain equity capital stake. An equity capital stake of 10% or more of the ordinary shares or voting power for an incorporated enterprise, or its equivalent for an unincorporated enterprise, is normally considered as the threshold for the control of assets. (In some countries, an equity stake of other than 10% is still used.
Transnational corporation (TNC) - a monopoly union (concerns or multinational corporations), in which many companies are combined with one or more branches of the world economy, which are engaged in manufacturing and trading activities that transcend national countries.
TNC - a company (financial-industrial groups), which owned or controlled by complexes of production or service outside of the country in which these corporations are based, have an extensive network of branches and subsidiaries in different countries and occupy a leading position in production and sales of a product.
Transnational corporation - the kind of form of the international association of capitals when the parent company has affiliates in many countries, carrying out coordination and integration of their activity.
The legal regime of TNCs suggests business activity in different countries through the formation of branches and subsidiaries. These companies have a relatively independent service production and marketing of finished products, research and development, services to consumers, etc. In general, they comprise a large single production complex ownership over the equity only representatives of the country's founding. At the same time, branches and subsidiaries can be mixed enterprises with the participation of mainly national home country.
Distinctive lines of the transnational corporation are:
1) annual turnover is usually higher than $ 100 million;
2) have branches in more than 6 countries;
3) on the international status of the firm shows an indicator such as size percent of its sales, its products sold outside the country of origin of the company;
4) structure of its assets, in some foreign researches to the international corporations carry the companies having 25 % of actives abroad
The development of transnational corporations has passed historically a number of stages. In the first period of the origin of TNCs (the end of XIX century.), they have undergone very significant transformation. TNCs’ first generation has been largely associated with the development of raw materials of former colonies, which gives the basis to define them as «the national-raw transnational corporations».
According to its organizational and economic forms and mechanisms of functioning, there were cartels, syndicates and the first trusts. Then on the world stage there were trust types of TNCs which were associated with the production of military-technical products. Having started its activity in the period between two world wars, some of those second generation TNCs maintained their position in the global economy and after World War II. They produced weapons and ammunition.
In the 60th years, an increasingly prominent role of TNCs has begun to play the third generation, which was widely used to achieve scientific and technological revolution. These techno-consumer companies: corporations and conglomerates.
In the 60 – 80th years in the activity of TNCs organically incorporated the elements of national and foreign production: realizations of goods, management and organization of personnel, research of marketing and after-sales service.
The third generation of transnational corporations promoted to spread the achievements of scientific and technological revolution in the peripheral areas of the world economy and, most importantly, economic preconditions for the occurrence of international production with a single market and the information space, the international capital market and labor, scientific and technical services. Their goal was to conquer markets, sources of raw materials and spheres of application of capital.
In the early 60's the global transnational corporations of the fourth generation have gradually appeared and have affirmed. Their distinguishing features are:
· planetary vision of the markets and implementation of competition on a global scale, section of the world markets with a few global multinational corporations;
· coordinate the actions of their affiliates on the basis of new information technologies;
· flexible organization of each production site, adaptability corporate structure, uniform accounting and auditing;
· integration of its subsidiaries, factories and joint ventures into a single global network management, which, is integrated with other networks of TNCs;
· implementation of economic and political influence in the state in which they operate TNCs.
Their strategy is characterized by their innovative aggressiveness, dynamism and a withdrawal from single industry structure, constant improvement of internal corporate structure, aiming at the conquest of the key global economic position in the production and marketing.
As for the structure of transnational corporations, it is following:
A parent company is an incorporated or unincorporated enterprise, or group of enterprises, which has a direct investment enterprise operating in a country other than that of the parent enterprise. An affiliate enterprise is an incorporated or unincorporated enterprise in which a foreign investor has an effective voice in management. Such an enterprise may be a subsidiary, associate or branch.
A subsidiary (an affiliate) is an incorporated enterprise in the host country in which another entity directly owns more than a half of the shareholder's voting power, and has the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory body.
An associate is an incorporated enterprise in the host country in which an investor owns a total of at least 10%, but not more than half, of the shareholders’ voting power.
A branch is a wholly or jointly owned unincorporated enterprise in the host country which is one of the following: a permanent establishment or office of the foreign investor; an unincorporated partnership or joint venture between the foreign direct investor and one or more third parties; land, structures (except structures owned by government entities), and /or immovable equipment and objects directly owned by a foreign resident; or mobile equipment (such as ships, aircraft, gas- or oil-drilling rigs) operating within a country, other than that of the foreign investor, for at least one year.
A joint venture involves share-holding in a business entity having the following characteristics: the entity was established by a contractual arrangement (usually in writing) whereby two or more parties have contributed resources towards the business undertaking; the parties have joint control over one or more activities carried out according to the terms of the arrangements and none of the individual investors is in a position to control the venture unilaterally.
Economists did not actually coin the phrase “transnational corporation” until the 1960s. Even before that time, however, studies were being conducted into the history and evolution of transnational corporation organization. When these studies were finally executed, it was shown that TNCs had different internal organizational structures based on geographic location—even at their earliest stages in development. The growing role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in the world economy began to speak only in the second half of XX century.The uncontrolled activities of transnational corporations are main key reasons for the imbalances in the global economy. In general, there are five stages in the evolution of the transnational corporation. These stages describe significant differences in the strategy, worldview, orientation, and practice of companies operating in more than one country. One of the key differences in companies at these different stages is in orientation.
Stage One—Domestic
The stage-one company is domestic in its focus, vision, and operations. Its orientation is ethnocentric. This company focuses upon domestic markets, domestic suppliers, and domestic competitors. The environmental scanning of the stage-one company is limited to the domestic, familiar, home-country environment. The unconscious motto of a stage-one company is: “If it’s not happening in the home country, it’s not happening.” The world’s graveyard of defunct companies is littered with stage-one companies that were sunk by the Titanic syndrome: the belief, often unconscious but frequently a conscious conviction, that they were unsinkable and invincible on their own home turf.