System Requirements

Chapter 20 : A CHANGING WORLD

Globalization and Transnational Corporations

Practicing Sociology Data Exercise

In Chapter 20 you have read about the patterns of social change. The authors of your text identified three major factors that consistently influenced the nature and direction of such change throughout history: the physical environment, political organization, and cultural factors. However, as they note, in the last two hundred years the rate of social change has accelerated. Additionally, the physical environment has had less of an impact on change; instead, economic factors have played a much larger role. Today, one of the most significant changes is globalization, or the fact that we live in a world that is increasingly interdependent. The world's economies have become more integrated and dominated by economic activities that are both weightless and intangible, operating around products that have their base in information.

Facilitating this global integration are transnational corporations. As defined in your text, transnational corporations are companies that produce goods or market services in more than one country; they may have their corporate headquarters in one nation, but their business is oriented towards global markets and global profits. We all recognize the names of some of the major transnational corporations: Coca-Cola , General Motors , Colgate-Palmolive , Toyota , and McDonalds . In this last exercise you will be doing a little research into the operations of some of these corporations.

Part I:

The three transnational corporations we will be exploring are: Coca-Cola , Toyota , and McDonalds . While each of these organizes website information about corporate activities, especially global corporate activities differently, you should be able to find a wide range of information at each of these web sites.

Let's begin with Coca-Cola . When you open the link, your first step will be click on "The Coca-Cola Company." To learn more about the history of global marketing, select "Our Company" and then "Around the World." After reading the general statement, you can explore its corporate activities in almost 70 of the more than 200 countries in which it operates today by selecting one and clicking "GO." You might also want to look at some of the information regarding the financial record of the company by clicking on the "Investor" section. After you have finished exploring the corporate side, click on "Coca-Cola Worldwide" and take a look at some of the individual websites for different countries.

Now look at Toyota . From the Toyota homepage, select "Company" from the top bar. This link takes you to a whole volume of information about Toyota's global operations. Begin by clicking on "Overview" to learn more about Toyota's corporate profile and facts. Other places to look include "Manufacturing," especially "Worldwide Operations," and "History of Toyota," including the decade-by-decade timeline where you can learn more about global developments.

The final transnational corporation is McDonalds . First click on the "Corporate" link and explore some of the different publications that are posted there. In particular, you can open the most recent annual Financial Report and read more about global corporate profits. You might also want to take a few minutes to explore the interactive graphs based on information from the 2003 Financial Report. Once you are through with the corporate pages, click on the link to "Country Sites," located at the very bottom of the page. Randomly select some countries and visit their corporate websites.

Part II:

Writing Assignment 1:

How would you characterize the history of global activity for each of these corporations? When did they move into the global market? How extensive are their global activities?

Writing Assignment 2:

In what ways are the global activities of each of these corporations similar? In what ways are they different?

Writing Assignment 3:

In what ways has each of the companies adapted to the local conditions? In what ways are their products similar across the globe?

Writing Assignment 4:

In what ways are the companies dependent upon global operations? In what ways are the countries in which they operate dependent upon their continued local operation?

Writing Assignment 5:

What conclusions can you draw about the process of globalization-what are the costs and benefits?

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