IBM defines itself as a globally integrated enterprise, Toshiba a company in the world and ABB as a global company, which is home everywhere.

The transformation of more transnational firms into global corporations helps to promote China's sustainable development, according to the 2008 report on transnational corporations in China released in Beijing on Friday.

"When half the company's assets are overseas, half the income comes from overseas markets and half the employees are based overseas, it's natural to have an overseas tilt more pronounced than the early transnationals. Their strategy, management structure and philosophy are bound to shift," Wang Zhile, director of the Multinational Enterprise Research Center, which published the report, said.