The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) transnationality index measures the degree to which a company is transnational by comparing foreign numbers to purely home country numbers for assets, sales and employment. The greater the percentage of foreign data, the more transnational a company is said to be. Thus, the
degree of transnationality refers to the transnationalization process of firms.
In a 2006 survey, the research team of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) gauged the
degree of transnationality by determining the number of regions (North America, Europe and rest-of-the-world) in which the employees working for worldwide companies were located. Firms were then categorized as regional, bi-regional or transnational. Firms were considered to be transnational if at least 15 per cent of the company's employees were located in each of the three global regions.
According to this survey, roughly half of Canadian multinational companies appear to be more regional than international, with 47 per cent reporting that 85 per cent or more of their employees were located in just one global region.
Therefore, while there is much discussion of globalization, the reality is closer to what might be called "regional firms" inasmuch as their operations are concentrated in one global region.
(adapted from Bélanger, J., et al,
Future perspectives of multinationals in Canada, Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT), Montréal, 2006, pp. 12-13, and CRIMT, visited 2009-06-11)
Growth of Transnationalization
"The world's largest TNCs are becoming increasingly transnational, and are thus less dependent on their home country in terms of assets, sales and the location of their employees. The pace of transnationalization among the world's top 100 is brisk, while it appears to be more gradual among the largest TNCs in developing countries. […] All indications are that the forces of globalization will lead to an increase in the
degree of transnationality of firms."
(United Nations Conference of Trade and Development (UNCDTAD),
General Electric Heads List of World's Top 100 Transnational Firms, Daewoo Leads List of Largest TNCs from Developing Countries, 1998, visited 2009-06-11)
