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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
A transnational enterprise is an information and decision system that directs the common strategy of business establishments operating under several jurisdictions; its objective is precise and concrete: it is to realize a profit by producing and selling goods or services, computers perhaps or hamburgers, or leisure, under such names as I.B.M. or VW, McDonald or Club Mediterranée.
1 "Transnational" is the term officially used at the United Nations in order to distinguish the general case from the particolar one of "multinational" enterprises established within the scope of the Andean Pact.
Let's mention here the U.N. interest in transnational enterprises. A U.N. Commission for Transnational Corporations has established a Working Group for drafting a Code of Conduct (Document E/C.10/AC. 2/3-19; January 1978) and a Center for Transnational Corporations located in New York. The Center publishes a periodical magazine: The CTC Reporter.
An excellent overview of the T.C.'s legal problem is: "The Transnational Corporation", by Seymour J. Rubin, in Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, Vol. 32, November 4, 1977.
2 Storm Over the Multinationals, by Raymond Vernon, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1977. This work, one of the latest publications sponsored by the Harvard center, contains an extensive bibliography in the Notes.
3 L'Etat et les Ententes Industrielles, by Elizabeth Dussauze, Paris, 1939. Since 1945 the scope of private cartels has been reduced; the "cartels" of today, such as OPEC and AITA, are inter-governmental institutions.
4 Les Brevets et les Trusts, an unpublished study by Charles H. Taquey, 1946.
5 "Role of Cartels in Modern Economy", by Grant S. McClellan, Foreign Policy Reports, New York, October 15, 1944.
6 "Trade Liberalization, Protectionism and Interdependence", Geneva, GATT, 1977.
7 "Report on International Investment", Paris, OECD, 1950.
8 "The Multinational Corporation", Washington, D.C., US Department of Commerce, 1972.
9 "Aspects of International Investment", ibid., 1977.
10 IBRD Report, 1977.
11 "Multinationals from Small Countries", by C.F. Kindleberger and L.T. Wells, Jr. Cambridge, MIT Press, 1977.
12 Professor Brent Wilson (University of Virginia), quoted by Sanford Ross in "Why the Multinational Trend is Ebbing", Fortune, August 1977.
13 Raymond Vernon, op. cit., p. 81, Fig. 1.
14 "The Defense of the Multinational Corporation", by J. K. Galbraith, Harvard University Review, March-April 1978.
15 Richard Gobden, un révolutionnaire pacifique, by Charles H. Taquey, Paris, Gallimard, 1938.
16 The Cloud of Danger, by G. F. Kennan, New York, 1978.
17 Foreign Investment from the Third World, by L. T. Wells, Jr., Boston, 1978.
18 "Multinationals as Agents of Social Development", by Richard L. Meier, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Chicago, Illinois, November 1977.
19 "1999", by Wassily Leontieff, New York, 1978.
20 See Note 1.
21 "Socialisme et Démocratie", by Charles H. Taquey in Perspectives, Paris, June 24 and September 2, 1976, February 3 and October 2, 1977.