The following key terms are used to describe U.S. multinational companies and their operations. For a comprehensive discussion of the terms and the concepts used, see "A Guide to BEA Statistics on U.S. Multinational Companies," SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS 75 (March 1995): 38–55.
U.S. direct investment abroad (USDIA): The ownership or control, directly or indirectly, by one U.S. person of 10 percent or more of the voting securities of an incorporated foreign business enterprise or the equivalent interest in an unincorporated foreign business enterprise.
U.S. multinational company (MNC): The U.S. parent and all of its foreign affiliates.
U.S. parent: A person, resident in the United States, who owns or controls 10 percent or more of the voting securities, or the equivalent, of a foreign business enterprise. "Person" is broadly defined to include any individual, branch, partnership, associated group, association, estate, trust, corporation or other organization (whether or not organized under the laws of any State), or any government entity. If incorporated, the U.S. parent is the fully consolidated U.S. enterprise consisting of (1) the U.S. corporation whose voting securities are not owned more than 50 percent by another U.S. corporation and (2) proceeding down each ownership chain from that U.S. corporation, any U.S. corporation (including Foreign Sales Corporations located within the United States) whose voting securities are more than 50 percent owned by the U.S. corporation above it. A U.S. parent comprises the domestic (U.S.) operations of a U.S. MNC.
Foreign affiliate: A foreign business enterprise in which there is U.S. direct investment, that is, in which a U.S. person owns or controls (directly or indirectly) 10 percent or more of the voting securities or the equivalent. Foreign affiliates comprise the foreign operations of a U.S. MNC over which the parent is presumed to have a degree of managerial influence.
Majority-owned foreign affiliate (MOFA): A foreign affiliate in which the combined ownership of all U.S. parents exceeds 50 percent. MOFA's comprise the foreign operations of U.S. MNC over which the parent(s) has unambiguous managerial control.
Nonbank: An entity (MNC, parent, or affiliate) whose primary activity does not fall within the "depository institution" classification. Only the operations of nonbanks are covered in this article.
Gross product: The market value of goods and services produced. The estimates of the gross product for U.S. MNC's presented here measure the contribution of the parents to U.S. GDP and the contribution of the MOFA's to foreign countries' GDP. For a discussion of the uses of, and the methods used to compute, the estimates of the gross product for U.S. MNC's, see "Gross Product of U.S. Multinational Companies, 1977–91," SURVEY 74 (February 1994): 42–63.