Multinational corporations date back to the merchant-adventurer era, when the Dutch East India Company and the Massachusetts Bay Company crisscrossed the world to extract resources and agricultural products from colonies (Gilpin 278-79). Although contemporary multinational corporations (MNCs) do not command the armies and territories of their colonial counterparts, they are nevertheless very influential actors in today's increasingly globalized world. Gilpin discussed the evolution of multinational corporations through the lens of a variety of business economic theories. Using Raymond Vernon's product cycle theory, overseas expansion of American companies until the 1960s was presented as a means of preventing foreign competition and preserving monopoly positions, which was possible then due to the gap of wealth and technology that existed between the United States and the rest of the world. the world (282-83). After filling these gaps, Dunning and the Eclectic Theory of the Reading School explained the next phase of the evolution of the multinational as driven by the great strides made in technology and communication, which made internationalized management possible and practicable (283). Michael Porter's theory of strategy, meanwhile, asserts that the multinational is now in the era of strategic management, where boundary-crossing activities and capabilities allow it to “enter the value chain” in the most advantageous positions ( 285-85). Gilpin, however, made an interesting point: multinationals are often the result of market imperfections and unique business situations. In many cases, the decision to expand a company's operations into another country was a means to circumvent protectionist measures and trade barriers, or simply to curry favor with governments, as practiced by IBM (280...... middle of paper .. ....citizens of trading nations (location 3523-27). The negative externalities caused by multinationals are most visible in the damage inflicted on the environment. The Exxon Valdez oil spill and toxic waste dumping by Oki Tedi are just two examples of multinationals causing serious damage to the environment, either by accident or as a corporate strategy. Environmental damage can have devastating effects not only on the community in which a multinational is established but also potentially on the rest of the world as effects of. environmental degradation, just like globalization, spans borders and territories. Bibliography Gilpin, Robert: Understanding the International Economic Order: Princeton University Press, 2001. Print.Stiglitz, Joseph E. Making Globalization Work. New York: Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. Kindle ebook file.