The Soft Power Of Transnational Corporations And Their Interaction With The Local Government

The rapid development of transnational corporations (TNCs) has attracted increasing attention in the study of current international political and economic relations. TNCs are one of the major players, together with nation-states, on the international stage, and they are also a special type of media organizations among different countries. By their unique business activities, TNCs turn international economic relations into their own internal relations, and their strong economic power and control over the global market has provided a major measure for them to participate in international affairs and to influence relations among different countries.As the'Soft Power'theory argues, besides hard command power, soft co-optive power can also influence international relations. This theory has provided an alternative perspective to understand the interaction between TNCs and governments. In recent years, it can be observed that soft power factors, including corporate social responsibility, policies and mechanism, innovative technologies, have accounted for a growing part of TNCs'interaction with governments, which also shows the feasibility of an analysis of TNC-government interaction from the perspective of'soft power'In this essay, the concept of'TNCs'soft power'is proposed, and the modes and strategies of TNC-government interactions are analyzed. Based on the theoretical discussion, some initial empirical researches are carried out with cases in Shanghai.From the perspective of soft power, TNCs'impacts on their host regions include both figures like GDP and intangible areas like policies and ideas. Especially in terms of technology, the settlement of a growing number of TNCs'R&D centers in Shanghai have helped promote the city's upgrade in innovation capabilities, human resource training and creation of a favorable environment for innovation, however it has also raised some challenges in terms of control over talents, technologies and information. Therefore, it is important for governments to understand the possible impacts of such interaction, and to make full advantage of various resources of hard power and soft power, so as to create mutually beneficial interactions.This article tries to re-interpret TNCs-governments interactions in the context of soft power. It can provides reference for related governments to understand impacts brought by TNCs, and thus make appropriate policies and conduct interaction.