Formation of competitive advantages of TNCs in the context of globalization. The role of TNCs in the global economy

An analysis of the activities of TNCs and theories of foreign direct investment allows us to identify the following main sources of effective activity of TNCs (compared to purely national companies):

o using the advantages of owning natural resources, capital and knowledge, especially R&D results, over firms doing business in one country and satisfying their needs for foreign resources only through export-import transactions;
o the possibility of optimal location of their enterprises in different countries, taking into account the size of their domestic market, economic growth rates, labor costs and qualifications, prices and availability of other economic resources, infrastructure development, as well as political and legal factors, among which political stability is the most important;
o the possibility of accumulating capital within the entire system of TNCs, including borrowed funds in the countries where foreign branches are located, and applying it in the most favorable circumstances and places for the company;
o use for their own purposes the financial resources of the whole world;
o constant awareness of the conjuncture of commodity, currency and financial markets in different countries, which allows you to quickly transfer capital flows to those countries where there are conditions for obtaining maximum profit, and at the same time distribute financial resources with minimal risks (including risks from fluctuations in national currencies) ;
o rational organizational structure, which is under the close attention of the management of TNCs, is constantly being improved;
o creation of new jobs and higher wages compared to the national average;
o the possibility of making large investments in R&D. For 2003, the share of TNC investments in R&D in the USA is 12%, in France - 19%, and in the UK - 40%;
o experience in international management, including the optimal organization of production and sales, maintaining a high reputation of the company.

The sources of effective activity of this type are dynamic: they usually increase as the company's assets grow and its activities diversify. At the same time, the necessary conditions for the implementation of these sources are reliable and inexpensive communication of the parent company with foreign branches, a wide network of business contacts of the foreign branch with local firms of the host country, and skillful use of the opportunities provided by the legislation of this country.

At the same time, it is impossible not to see that TNCs indeed remain a source of a number of negative social consequences associated with the selfish motives of their activities. This is a general problem of the market economy and the big capital that dominates it. But it acquires particular soreness in the sphere of international economic relations. In an effort to capture markets abroad, TNCs do not disdain the suppression of national production. It is not uncommon for local enterprises to be bought up not for reorganization, but for the curtailment of production, especially in under- and medium-developed countries. Deriving high incomes by exploiting cheap labor and natural resources, large TNCs often prefer to invest profits outside these countries. Transnational companies, including banking companies, receive enormous tribute through financial transactions in the world market.

To achieve their goals, TNCs also resort to interference in political life, fuel political figures, political groups and regimes that are convenient for them, limiting the state independence of other countries.

All of these are real phenomena, and they are unlikely to disappear on their own. It is required to create a system for regulating the activities of TNCs, norms and rules of the game that limit negative manifestations. The antimonopoly legislation of the countries where TNC centers are located and where their foreign activities are deployed has a positive impact on TNCs.

Economic advantages of TNCs

multinational corporation economic production

The ultimate goal of the activities of TNCs is the appropriation of profits. To achieve this goal, they have many advantages over other participants in international economic relations.

We highlight the main incentives for TNCs in the globalization of their business:

§ striving for technological leadership, which in the modern world is the key to competitive advantage in the markets;

§ optimization of the size of the corporation and economies of scale of the organization, which are no longer feasible in the narrow framework of national markets;

§ access to foreign natural resources for reliable supply of own production with raw materials;

§ struggle for new markets, including foreign markets, overcoming import barriers;

§ cost reduction and increase in the competitiveness of its products due to the dispersal of production and rationalization of individual operations of the reproduction process;

§ introduction of a unified corporate management system, organization of the internal market, creation of an advertising and information network;

§ the establishment of firm control over the markets of foreign states, not only through branches of parent companies and mixed enterprises, but also through an alliance with political elites, through which there is a multifaceted influence on the host states.

§ rationalization of taxation through the use of specific features of the tax systems of the countries in which the corporation operates. (one)

Now let's go directly to the economic advantages of TNCs. First of all, TNCs make up for the limitations of the domestic market at the expense of foreign countries, since any market has its own capacity. As a rule, large companies have a well-known brand and products that are in demand among consumers; have significant financial resources. Thus, the company focuses on a specific market segment that can provide the organization with the necessary sales volume and profit level. (2)

Hence the second advantage of TNCs is the relative ease of market penetration. Ease is relative, as some countries may pursue protectionist policies for their companies. It involves the adoption of measures to curb the process of penetration of foreign companies into the local market. However, in contrast to this, the same government can, by all available means, provide significant assistance in the expansion of a particular corporation into foreign markets. (one)

The third advantage is favorable conditions in the competition. TNCs are able to conduct both price and non-price competition. They save significant funds on the scale of production (with the increase in production volumes, fixed costs per unit of output decrease). This allows you to manipulate the price of your products to a wider extent than a firm with a small volume of production. The possibility of conducting non-price competition is again associated with significant financial resources that are at the disposal of the organization. Hence the opportunity to invest more in R&D (research and development work) and marketing.

The next advantage of TNCs is the ability to use the resources of other countries. Anything can be such a resource: labor, minerals, production facilities.

In addition, TNCs are able to quickly move production resources between their affiliates to where they are used most efficiently. The meaning of such a movement is to reduce production costs and more rational use of one or another factor of production.

And, finally, the last advantage of TNCs is its resilience during crises. Here, again, the decisive role is played by the scale of production, thanks to which the company can manipulate not only the price of products, but also the volume of its output.

It can be concluded that it is thanks to the above advantages that TNCs are the leading organizational structure in the world market and control a significant part of international trade.

The practical consequence of the objectivity of social processes is that they cannot be created artificially or somehow imitated. The most striking example is the pseudo-market as a result of the efforts of many people to plant a market where it cannot be. Nothing but an additional wasted resource comes out of these efforts. Accordingly, we will not invent anything new - we will have to deal with what already exists and what works.

The most organically developing today are the so-called. "transnational corporations". Even the numerous antimonopoly committees created specifically against them are not a hindrance to them! What is the reason for their viability, what is their advantage over other forms of organization of production at this stage in the development of the productive forces?

1. Huge market. They sell their products to the entire planet and the only limit to their market is purchasing power.

2. Free placement around the world. A transnational corporation can decide where it is better to place its production facilities, where - those involved in direct sales, where - service. 100% geographic and taxation factors are used.

3. Transnational corporations are the only solution for long technological chains, allowing to produce the most technologically advanced products. As already mentioned, you can't build a Boeing in a barn. However, it often happens that the technological chain for the creation of a particular product is served by several legal entities, however, if you carefully study their relationship with each other, these will be typical relationships within single corporations. This means production interdependence and “fine” tuning of such legal entities to each other - see the new meaning of the word “multiplier”.

4. Opportunities for personal growth, career, high-quality provision of employees with the necessary for work. Just compare the office of Google and the office of some small company. Google can afford it, small firms can't.

5. High social importance, causing the need for state support in case of difficulties and failures.

Now let's look at the shortcomings of transnational corporations, cited as arguments against them by opponents - supporters of the "capitalist paradise":

1. Clumsiness. Indeed, a company that builds one aircraft every few decades is much more clumsy than a company that designs any single component for this aircraft. A company designing one node will be able to switch to another very quickly, and you cannot switch from plane to plane. But in the same way, we can blame the company that designs the knot for slowness, comparing it with a courier service that can deliver this knot today, and wrinkle cream tomorrow.

2. Monopoly with all the ensuing consequences: quality deterioration, price increase, no need to develop. If there were only one transnational corporation left in the world, this would be fair, but there are several of them for each area. I would not say that, because multinational corporations are engaged in smartphones, they lose a lot. Another thing is that in a high-tech area that requires the involvement of the maximum number of productive forces, there cannot be as many competitors as in the pizza delivery industry. And this is also an objective indicator.

3. Formalism and bureaucracy, which are indispensable in large companies, and which small companies are completely deprived of and medium ones are almost deprived of. Like, these formalism and bureaucracy increase costs and limit development opportunities - everything is easier and more natural in small firms. Nevertheless, with all their formalism and bureaucracy, transnational corporations are crowding out small and medium-sized businesses, "stifling" them and hindering their development - according to the same people who use this small and medium-sized business as an example and edification.

4. Transnational corporations "strangle" small and medium-sized businesses, hinder their development. Stop seeing small and medium-sized businesses as the only purpose of existence - and the world will sparkle with a thousand colors and their shades! It is not transnational corporations themselves that interfere, but what led to their emergence - progress. Small businesses have grown into big ones. Our childhood is very disturbed by our youth, which, unfortunately, is coming irreversibly. Ay! Where is the train that leaves for the Land of Childhood? Why do I feel sick on these swings now, when it used to be so much fun?

5. Restriction of freedom, a person becomes a cog in a huge machine, instead of opening his own business and prospering. The issue of personal freedom is a very important issue, and it echoes the issue of formalism and bureaucracy discussed above. However, this question is not as simple and obvious as it seems. What, for example, is the freedom and lack of freedom of an employee of a transnational corporation and an employee of a private firm? What are the fundamental differences between them? None, except that an employee of a small company has access to fewer benefits and opportunities than an employee of a multinational corporation. At the same time, it is possible to show individuality in any environment - up to the penitentiary, just as in any environment there are social norms and rules of behavior that can be considered as a restriction of freedom. Why can't I swear at a charity meeting?

There is talk that an individual entrepreneur is freer, and that the more individual entrepreneurs, the more freedom there is - there is talk about what is considered freedom. I propose the following point of view: an entrepreneur is not free much more than his employee, since he must subordinate his whole life to the formula “Profit = Income - Costs”. They say that the best entrepreneurs come from those who approach the matter pragmatically, without unnecessary sentimentality and conventions, and are not distracted by what is not directly related to their business. Such an approach, such submission to external circumstances, is the most terrible slavery imaginable. And how advantageous against this background looks some kind of middle manager who earns no less than a small and even medium-sized entrepreneur, but who has days off and non-working hours during which he can do whatever and however he likes!

It is also believed that a private entrepreneur is engaged in creativity, creates something new, and an employee of a corporation is forced to do what is lowered to him from above within the limits of the job description. Again, the question intersects with the possibilities and the level of progress! Indeed: in corporations, the lowest positions are executive ones. There is nowhere to show creativity. But there are also higher positions, starting from which a person receives responsibility for specific areas of activity. And here he has a resource that he has, much more than the limited resource of an individual entrepreneur, since the possibilities of the corporation as a whole are higher.

Talk about freedom of enterprise is a convention and subjectivity that we have created for ourselves. From the whole complex of human interactions, we chose what we agreed to consider positive and called it “freedom”. With the collapse of capitalism and the development of state elitism, these conventions become completely ephemeral: the main sign of freedom, usually shamefully covered by chatter about higher ideals - the ability to acquire wealth - is shifting from entrepreneurship to work for hire, the “era of rentiers” (sorry! - Entrepreneurs, of course) replaces the "era of managers".

If we transfer the talk of freedom to one form of socio-economic relations back to the time when subsistence economy gave way to the future of specialized capitalist enterprise, we get approximately the same reasoning. A peasant who leads a subsistence economy is free, he decides for himself what to do now and what to do later. Either crush flax, or sow wheat. If he specializes in one thing, for example, in flax, which is inevitable for him under capitalism, he loses all his possibilities with regard to wheat, except to buy it ready-made. It's inconvenient, it raises risks, it limits the individual, and the like - the full set of arguments in defense of sole proprietorship versus corporations fits perfectly here. Nevertheless, mankind was able to adapt to the division of labor and feel good about it - better than in the days of subsistence farming. The corporation is just a new level of specialization. From a legal entity to an individual. The corporation becomes what is today called a society, and the individual what is called a separate legal entity. The potential for this transformation is much higher, including in terms of the “freedom” indicator. A person does not need to think about where to conclude a contract or where to get a secured loan - he can fully concentrate on the area of activity that is accountable to him.

As you can see, all that there are advantages of transnational corporations is what allows them to be at the top of progress, to produce and distribute what is produced in the most rational way, and what is their disadvantages are obsolete idealistic ideas about some kind of magical world, which in reality never existed. And you can have long conversations about what is considered freedom and what is its limitation - only objective reality easily subdues these disputes by leaving no choice. But a person is not so simple as to give in to organizational difficulties! History constantly demonstrates that a person always wins and sooner or later puts at his service any, even the most embarrassing and even catastrophic phenomena of the surrounding reality. So there is no point in talking about the disadvantages and advantages - it makes sense to talk about the basic conditions for development. What will grow out of them is the result of free creativity and the ability of mankind to establish high-quality relationships within itself.

However, it is quite possible that tomorrow (more precisely, the day after tomorrow) everything will be different. For example, people will learn how to print iPhones on a 3D printer and the need for corporations will disappear, their advantages will turn into disadvantages.

[1] “A thief is free even behind a thorn, but she suffered and was free as in prison” - there is such a saying in the criminal environment.

As all sorts of business coaches teach today, “a startup must burn”, it must become a “business of a lifetime”, a person involved in a startup should not think about how to earn money, but about how to realize his creative potential, etc.

Read, read the opinions of Russian populists (as well as all those who called themselves "socialists") about capitalism at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries! And how infernal the “Manifesto of the Communist Party” of Marx and Engels sounds:
“... The bourgeoisie, wherever it achieved dominance, destroyed all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. She ruthlessly tore apart the motley feudal fetters that tied a person to his "natural masters", and left no other connection between people, except for bare interest, a heartless "chistogan". In the icy water of selfish calculation, she drowned the sacred thrill of religious ecstasy, chivalrous enthusiasm, petty-bourgeois sentimentality. It has transformed the personal dignity of man into an exchangeable value, and has replaced innumerable freedoms granted and acquired with one unscrupulous freedom of trade. In a word, it has replaced exploitation covered by religious and political illusions with open, shameless, direct, callous exploitation.
The bourgeoisie deprived of the sacred halo all kinds of activity, which until then were considered honorable and which were looked at with reverent awe. She turned a doctor, a lawyer, a priest, a poet, a man of science into her paid employees.
The bourgeoisie tore off their touchingly sentimental veil from family relations and reduced them to purely monetary relations ... ".

However, this is also a very abstract assumption. For example, one can argue that progress does not stand still and that after the iPhone, something else will appear, as much more technically advanced than the iPhone as the iPhone is more perfect than a coffee grinder - and the 3d printer will not take it. But as long as there is no direct extrapolation between our assumptions and the technical developments currently available, all this is pure fantasy. Look how our ancestors imagined the world of the future a hundred years ago - you will understand what I mean.

This post is a slightly edited chapter from the book "Economics: where we came from and where we're going next".

Having a universal industrial base, the TNC pursues such a production and trade policy that ensures highly efficient planning of production, commodity market, dynamic policy in the field of capital investment and research work on a national, continental and international scale for all divisions (branches) of the parent corporation as a whole. .

The main sources of effective activity of TNCs are:

- taking advantage of ownership of (or access to) natural resources, capital and especially R&D results;
- the possibility of optimal location of their enterprises in different countries, taking into account the volume of their domestic market, economic growth rates, prices and qualifications of the labor force, the cost and availability of other economic resources, the development of infrastructure, as well as political and legal factors, among which political stability is the most important;
- the possibility of capital accumulation within the entire network of TNCs;
- use for their own purposes the financial resources of the whole world;
- constant awareness of the conjuncture of commodity, currency and financial markets in different countries; rational organizational structure of TNCs;
- international management experience.

It is important to note that TNCs create intracorporate markets that are not governed by market laws. Intra-corporate trade is called quasi-trade, which means that TNCs hinder the development of global trade.

The dynamics of intracorporate turnover is explained by:

- greater profitability of this trade;
- the shortest way to penetrate foreign markets;
- the ability to speed up the process of concluding and using commercial contracts, and therefore more effectively manage commercial and marketing activities.

To the greatest extent, these advantages are used by US TNCs. Their share of turnover is on average 45% of their total turnover.

By manipulating the transfer pricing policy, TNC subsidiaries operating in various countries skillfully circumvent national laws in order to hide tax revenues by transferring them to another industry, from one country to another and the headquarters of the TNC in developed countries. As a result, the effect of the downward trend in the rate of profit is neutralized, and the main goal of capital, profit, is achieved.

In modern conditions, TNCs are increasingly becoming members of international consortiums, concerns, extending their influence to diversified complexes. Thus, they get the opportunity to regulate the market, taking into account its needs, creating demand for their products even before the start of production.

Today they often talk about the merger of TNK and TNB, called a transnational financial oligarchy. Thus, TNBs act as the financial basis for the development of TNCs, which is effectively served by their branches, whose network is spread all over the world (more than 5 thousand branches of 140 TNBs accounted for the mid-1980s); in the 1990s, this process accelerated even more.

An increasingly active political and economic role is being played by large metropolitan areas, which are an ideal "habitat" for TNCs and the most important bases of transnational capital. Residents of large cities are gradually developing some new international subculture. They watch the same world information programs, are brought up on the same standards of education and behavior, live in a single accelerated rhythm, and much more often than others participate in the activities of international organizations, TNCs and TNBs.

It should be noted that many large cities in terms of the scale of their economic activity surpass the average nation-states. For example, Tokyo produces twice as many goods and services as Brazil; Chicago is comparable in scale to Mexico, half of whose GDP is produced in the metropolitan area of Mexico City. Large cities are becoming an independent force in the economic and political spheres and, in their growing ambitions, are actively moving toward an alliance with TNCs prepared at the socio-cultural level. The creation of unions of TNCs with megacities, which host the "core" of the corporation, is a new trend in the development of the world economy.

In modern TNCs, thanks to new computer technologies, a network organization with bases of transnational capital and control centers in large cities of various countries prevails. The development of global communication networks and global TNCs with a network management structure took place in parallel, and these processes, of course, complemented and stimulated each other.

An important role in the successful operation of TNCs is played by the state support of the parent company. For example, the world's three largest oil and gas corporations are state-owned: Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia), Gazprom (Russian Federation) and the National Iranian Oil Company (Iran). The state can provide financial support to its companies seeking to enter foreign markets, in particular, Chinese and Indian corporations have the opportunity to receive subsidies, soft loans and government guarantees for foreign operations.

Organization of activities of transnational companies in Russia

1.4 Economic advantages of TNCs