Globalisation Flashcards
Transnational Corporations (TNCs):
Businesses whose operations are spread across the world, operations in many nations as both makers and sellers of goods and services.
Many of the largest are. Instantly recognisable ‘global brands’ that bring cultural change to the places where products are consumed.
Remittances:
Money that migrants send home to their families via formal or informal channels
Interdependency:
When two places become over-reliant on financial and/or political connections with one another.
Gross-domestic Product:
A measure of the financial value of goods and services produced within a territory often divided by population size to produce a per capita figure for the purpose of making comparisons.
Spatial division of labour:
The common practise among TNCs of moving low-skilled work abroad (or ‘offshore’) to places where labour costs are low. Important skilled management jobs are retained at the TNCs headquarters in its country of origin.
Intermodal containers:
Large-capacity storage units which can be transported long distances using multiple types of transport, such as shipping and rail, without the freight being taken out of the container.
Shrinking world:
Distant places start to feel closer and take less time to reach.
BRICS group:
The four large, fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, recently joined at their annual summit meeting by South Africa.
Foreign direct investment:
A financial injection made by a TNC into a nations economy, either to build new facilities or to acquire, or merge with, an existing firm already based there.
Trickle-down:
The positive impacts on peripheral regions (areas on the edge) - and poorer people- caused by the creation of wealth in core regions (and among richer people).
Sovereign wealth funds:
Government-owned investment funds and banks, typically associated with China and countries that have large revenues from oil, such as Qatar.
Free trade blocs:
Voluntary international organisations that exist for trading purposes, bringing greater economic strength and security to the nations that join.
Tariffs:
The taxes that are paid when importing or exporting goods and services between countries
Special Economic Zones:
An industrial area, often near a coastline, where favourable conditions are created to attract foreign TNCs. These conditions include low tax rates and exemption from tariffs and export duties.
Offshoring:
TNCs move parts of their own production process (factories or offices) to other countries to reduce labour or other costs.
