Untitled - Ministerstwo Rozwoju Regionalnego

Customer
4PL
Carrier 3PL Consulting IT Financial service
Fig. 60. Shift from 3PL to 4PL
Source: Own study.
resulted in a reduction of 20% in transport costs, 50% in stock levels, and 33% in
cargo handling time.
The development of the world trade network is closely related to the establishment
of transnational corporations. It is said that multinational corporations
are an effect of FDI, and they are set up by means of takeovers, mergers, or
grassroots investment. The specific nature of these corporations lies not only in
the effects of their activities related to FDI, but also – or perhaps first of all – in
international flows of goods. The flows take place within technological structures
created by international logistics.
At present, the number of transnational corporations is growing: in 1997
there were 53,560, now their number amounts to over 60,000. The share of corporations
in global GDP amounts to ca. 30%, and they are responsible for 80% of
international transfer of technologies and 70% of FDI deposits. It must be
added that 80% of corporations are based in the USA, Canada, EU countries, Japan
and Singapore, and the value of sales of goods and services produced by
their subsidiaries is nearly 50% higher than the value of the world exports. Significant
economic potential of transnational corporations, generated by 200 largest
companies in the world, amounts to 18 trillion dollars of the total annual income,
with assets of 65 trillion dollars and 63 million jobs 7 .
However, a rapid growth of information technologies necessary for the implementation
of logistic processes in transnational corporations causes a risk of
asymmetric threats.
7 E. Go³embska, Podstawowe problemy…, op. cit., p.57.
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