Evaluation of the external transfer of quality management systems of the world's largest corporations

Many of today's global corporations are more powerful than some European, Asian or African countries. Decisions made in peaceful offices by board members can influence the course of events world‐wide, sometimes to the same extent – but with less hype – as decisions made by politicians. The influence of the world's largest corporations on global business and even politics is unquestionable. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the world's largest corporations also influence the spread and development of quality management systems. Other important issues discussed in this paper are the problem of differentiation of the intensity of diffusion and the identification of channels of QMS transfer.