Global embrace : corporate challenges in a transnational world

As each passing day brings more news of cross-border business ventures - from strategic alliances to international mergers - a new kind of corporate entity is pushing its way into global reality: the transnational corporation. SmithKline, Sony, IBM, Nestle and other transnationals exceed national boundaries, transcend traditional definitions of national identity, and regard the entire globe as a single theatre of operations. The emergence of these transnational corporations is one of the most far-reaching and, some believe, controversial transformations currently under way around the world. Through the remainder of this century and well into the next, transnationals are likely to be influential not only in regard to the way individuals live and work, but also the way in which politics and economics interact around the world. This account by an executive of a transnational corporation presents global business and the challenges posed by the emergence of transnational corporations as primary connecting links of the global economy.