1. Lesson Objectives
• To know what a TNC is and learn a
suitable case study

2. Trans National Corporations
(TNC’s)
• Transnational Corporations (TNCs) are major
companies which have a presence (e.g. production,
headquarters, sales) in at least two countries.
• Many TNCs are so economically powerful and politically
influential that they rival national economies in terms of
wealth.
• They hold together different economies and societies
through supply chains and marketing strategies

5. TNC’s
• TNC’s have evolved into complex
organisms;
– Large TNC’s regularly buy other smaller ones
(e.g. Jaguar and Land Rover owned by Tata,
the Indian steel company)
– Much of manufacturing is subcontracted to
third parties so enforcing good working
conditions is hard.

6. TNC’s
• They also operate in Glocalisation (changing
their produce to meet local markets, e.g. Wet
Market in Tesco in Thailand or the Chicken
Maharajah Mac)
• Most TNC’s are simply assembly industries
(e.g. Mini who in Oxford assemble 2,500
different parts)

10. So where do TNC’s belong?
• It is difficult to map the geography of TNC’s due
to their complex network of production and
consumption
• The largest firms have branch plants (a factory
not in the country where the TNC’s headquarters
is.)

11. So where do TNC’s belong?
• Despite all this the parent company (i.e. the one
which owns everything else e.g. Tata in the case
of Jaguar and Land Rover in India) do need to
register a head office somewhere where they
pay tax.
• TNC’s also promote consumption patterns, e.g.
Burger King opening first store in China in 2005.
Now plans to open 1000 more stores.

12. TNC Case Study: Tesco
• History of Tesco video
• Watch this video here to
give you an idea of how
global Tesco is and what
they do to help other
parts of the world (floods
2011).
• Global growth of Tesco
video.

13. Tesco Case Study: Your Turn
• Produce a poster for display on Tesco
using p105-6. Include;
1. Brief History
2. Where stores are and are not located
abroad and why.
3. What are the positive effects on foreign
countries.
4. What are the negative effects that Tesco
has on the world.