Tömöri, M. (2015). Big players in retail, or transnational corporations in retail. Modern Geográfia, 10(1), 13–29.
In the globalized world economy, production, consumption and trade are organized in global-scale networks which are centred around transnational corporations. The present study aims to introduce the evolution and the different types of transnational companies and focusing on the special characteristic features of retail TNCs it highlights spatial processes inherent in their operating mechanisms which are restructuring (through dynamic interrelationships) the economic, social and political systems on global and local scale as well as the retail TNCs themselves. The study argues that retail TNCs have become one of the major driving forces behind economic globalization in the past few decades, wherein the exploitation of the advantages of foreign investments (faster growth opportunities, higher profits) has been the most important factor. Following the regime change (1990) retail TNCs transformed quickly and fundamentally the organizational and geographical structure of retailing in Hungary, wherein the 2008–2009 financial and economic crisis and government efforts to introduce stronger market regulation after 2010 have led to further important changes.
Keywords: retailing, transnational corporations, economic crisis, Hungary