Empresas Transnacionais:

This study explores multiple aspects of transnational corporations: definitions, changes throughout history, and their role in the contemporary socioeconomic context. Aiming to contribute to the scientific debate on the subject, the article takes an exploratory approach that, through a literature review, compares various perspectives on private actors operating across state borders. It seeks, in this way, to encompass the relationship between companies and states in the global arena. Specifically, in presenting the preliminary results, a comparative approach is adopted that analyzes different definitions and typologies of transnational enterprises, aligning them with the economic context of their time. To achieve this, the following fronts of inquiry are proposed: initially, the foundation of the discussion is established based on authors such as Huntington (1975), Wilkins (1998), UNCTAD (2005), Amatucci (2009), and Dicken (2010), creating an illustrative framework from these references. The other task involves a historical overview of transnational companies, discussing their characteristics and how they have evolved over time. The analysis is grounded in concepts by Bresser-Pereira (1976), who identified four main stages in the development of these corporations. In parallel, the matrix developed by Bartlett and Ghoshal (1998) is used as a theoretical framework to classify organizations according to their dynamics. Finally, the aim is to understand how these models apply to specific contexts and study objects, what their potentials and limitations are, and how they interact with one another.