The Development of International Corporations and Their Influence on the Process of the Globalisation of the World Economy

Abstract

The first period of the development of “modern” international corporation falls on the end of the 19^th century an early 20^th century. It was then that due to innovations in communication it was made possible to co-ordinate and control corporations on the international scale. After the Second World War international corporations actively joined the formation of international economic relations, above all in international trade and foreign investments. Analysing the development and activity of international corporations according to their origin, one may distinguish three stages: the years 1945-1972 – the period of the domination of American corporations; the years 1973-1984 – the period of intensive expansion and an increase in importance of European and Japanese corporations; the period from 1985 on – the economic triad in the world and corporations of the three economic world centres become more important. The fact that the triad system took place is connected with a strong concentration of localisation of mother international corporations in the highly-developed countries, and small importance in the world economy of the corporations from the developing countries. Due to the growing importance of the corporations in shaping international economic relations, this situation makes it that differences increase in the economic development of countries and regions.