Global Inc.

by Gabel, Medard

• ISBN13: 9781565847279
• ISBN10: 156584727X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: New Pr

Summary

"In the future there will be two kinds of corporations; those that go global, and those that go bankrupt."C. Michael Armstrong, CEO, AT&T Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 53 are corporations. A handful of corporate giants control most of the world's energy, technology, food, banks, industry, and media. Yet despite the ubiquity of enormous multinationals and their tremendous economic, social, political, and environmental presence in the world, the history and character of corporate entities remains largely unknown, daunting, and inaccessible to the general public. Global, Inc. is an atlas that charts this new, multinational geography. It features an extraordinary series of specially commissioned full-color maps that make clear the tremendous and surprising reach of individual corporations such as General Motors, Toyota, IBM, AT&T, Microsoft, British Petroleum, and AOL Time Warner, as they have spread out across the globe. Colorful explanatory charts and graphs help illustrate, among other phenomena, the meteoric rise of today's MNCs: from the opening up of ancient trade routes and the early colonization companies of the 17th through 19th centuries, to the international trade flows and cross-border mergers and acquisitions of today's modern multinationals. The product of several years of collaborative research by leading historians and geographers, Global, Inc. is the first book to examine multinational corporations from a truly global perspective and in atlas format. Impartial, accessible, and endlessly engrossing, Global, Inc. offers a penetrating look at one of the most powerful phenomena on the planet in the twenty-first century.

Author Biography

Henry Bruner is an economic geographer at the University of New Mexico's Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

Table of Contents

Preface	vi
Foreword	vii
Acknowledgement	viii
Introduction	x
I. Globa1 Inc.	2	(7)
II. The Foundations of Multinational Corporations: Globalization	9	(9)
Technological Drivers of Globalization	9	(3)
Economic Globalization	12	(6)
III. The History of Multinational Corporations	18	(16)
The Opening of World Trade, a.d. 700-1600	18	(2)
Major European Multinational Businesses, 1300-1600	20	(2)
The Rise of Global Trading Companies, 1600-1800	22	(3)
The First Global Economy, 1800-1914	25	(3)
The Modern Multinational Corporation, 1914-2000	28	(6)
IV. The Global Corporations	34	(86)
Industrial Corporations
Motor Vehicles	36	(6)
Petroleum and Petrochemicals	42	(6)
Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals	48	(6)
Construction and Construction Materials	54	(4)
Forest and Paper Products	58	(4)
Trading/Conglomerates	62	(4)
Information Technology Corporations
Computers and Electronics	66	(8)
Software and the Internet	74	(4)
Telecommunications	78	(4)
Service Corporations
Commercial Banking	82	(6)
Transportation and Postal Services	88	(6)
Legal Services	94	(4)
Food and Food Services	98	(4)
Advertising	102	(4)
Media and Entertainment	106	(6)
Consulting and Accounting	112	(604)
Retail	716
V. The Impacts of Multinational Corporations	120	(16)
Employment and Wages	122	(2)
Taxes	124	(2)
Technology	126	(2)
Capital	128	(2)
Culture	130	(2)
Environment	132	(2)
Standards	134	(2)
VI. The Governance of Multinational Corporations	136	(13)
Governance and the Law	136	(4)
Governance and Politics	140	(1)
Governance and the Market	141	(1)
Corporate Self-Governance	142	(1)
Governance and International
Organizations	143	(2)
Possible Policies and Actions	145	(4)
Notes	149	(8)
Index	157