Transnational corporations and the global supply chain

Accounts differ, but it is probably right to say that there are between 63,000 and 77,000 transnational corporations (TNCs) driving today’s global economy. TNCs’ presence and influence are felt everywhere from New York to Bangalore to Nairobi, by people in all walks of life, by wealthy shareholders and assembly-line workers earning the minimum wage. TNCs dominate world production, foreign direct investment (FDI) and international distribution networks. Their assets and revenues are sometimes compared (usually incorrectly) with small nations’ gross domestic product (GDP). Such comparisons are utterly misleading because those making them usually confuse the gross sales of the companies with countries’ GDP.