In Essentials of Sociology James M. Henslin discusses the existence and function of multinational corporations in the globalized, modern world.

Henslin defines multinational corporations as "companies that operate across many national boundaries," and "help maintain the global dominance of the Most Industrialized Nations" (p. 207). The Most Industrialized Nations the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, a few other parts of western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand are the top rung on the global stratification ladder (akin to what most know as First World countries). These nations perpetuate their status as economic leaders in part by multinational corporations that use unscrupulous business tactics such as graft and extortion. Henslin mentions the United Fruit Company, "a U.S. corporation that used to run Central American nations as its own fiefdoms," as a quintessential multinational corporation. Citing a 2003 CIA report, Henslin goes on to outline how the CIA and Marines would overthrow governments in Central America who refused to work with the corporation. But military power is only one of many ways and arguably the most direct, iron-fisted way that multinationals maintain their businesses. One of the more pernicious methods these corporations use to get governments in the Least Industrialized Nations to cooperate is "funneling money to the elites and selling them modern weapons," and in return, "the corporations get a 'favorable business climate' that is, low taxes and cheap labor" (p. 207). This effectively maintains global stratification by bribing and tricking Third World nations into indebtedness and therefore preventing them from rising in economic status. All of that said, multinational corporations can (unintentionally) bring about positive effects to the Least Industrialized Nations. Because the Most Industrialized Nations generally move manufacturing to the more impoverished countries for the purpose of cheap labor and resources they do provide jobs and some money to these nations. While multinationals do have inadvertent positive by-products, they are still overwhelming negative forces in the context of global stratification