Applicability of Organization Theories in the Study of Transnational Corporations

Transnational corporations are the most powerful and significant single economic entity of our time, whose role and strength are undeniable. Transnational corporations are not only economic but also extremely important political and social institutions of the modern world. We have witnessed numerous discussions about global competition and transnational corporations, but there are very few conceptual and theoretical discussions that would analyze transnational corporations and their management. However, there are a number of attempts to analyze certain aspects of transnational corporations from existing theoretical perspectives. Existing organizational theories are based on very simplistic assumptions that are not adequate for transnational corporations because they cannot illustrate the complexity and kind of abundance of transnational corporations. In addition, transnational corporations are rarely used as an object of research. This paper first defines the prerequisites for the applicability of organizational theories in the research of transnational corporations, and then analyzes the dominant organizational theories in order to determine their adequacy.