The characteristics and specificities of business of multinational companies

Abstract

Multinacionalne kompanije datiraju još iz srednjeg vijeka, a danas predstavljaju poduzeća koja obavljaju različite poslove u dvije ili više zemalja i imaju važnu ulogu u svjetskoj trgovini i investicijama. Također, njihovo poslovanje obilježava velika geografska rasprostranjenost, veličina ukupnog prihoda i dobiti, kao i kapital te broj zaposlenih. Najveće multinacionalne kompanije dolaze iz SAD-a i Kine, a nerijetko ukupni prihodi najvećih kompanija premašuju BDP nekih zemalja, što ukazuje na njihovu moć i bogatstvo. Multinacionalne kompanije su najvažniji promotori globalizacije, procesa kojim se smanjuju ili potpuno ukidaju prepreke u međunarodnoj ekonomskoj razmjeni i povećava ekonomska integracija među zemljama. U radu se istražuje primjer djelovanja multinacionalne kompanije Shell, kontroverzne nizozemske naftne kompanije, kako bi se detaljnije dao uvid u poslovanje multinacionalnih kompanija.Multinational companies date back to the medieval, and today they represent companies that perform different activities in two or more countries and play an important role in world trade and investments. Also, their business operations are characterized by wide geographical distribution, the size of the total revenue and profit, as well as capital and number of employees. The biggest multinational companies are coming from the USA and China, and often total revenue of the biggest companies is exceeding GDP of some countries, which demonstrates their power and wealth. The multinational companies are the most important promoters of the globalization, the process which reduces or completely abolishes the barriers in international economic exchange and increases economic integration among countries. This study examines the example of multinational company Shell, Netherlands controversial oil company, in order to give more detailed insight into the operations of multinational companies