Business diplomacy in practice: A strategic response to global business challenges

Abstract

This paper investigates business diplomacy from the perspective of senior managers and diplomats. In one of the earliest empirical studies, twenty-one official diplomats, CEOs, and business people were interviewed about their perspectives on business diplomacy and its core elements. Data were analyzed using grounded theory. The findings indicate that business diplomacy is a set of multiple integrated qualities concerned with professionally and systematically managing and influencing multiple stakeholders to advance business interests. The findings have led to developing an integrative theory and framework that expands our understanding of business diplomacy. The framework demonstrates the practicability and applicability of business diplomacy in management and business. The study’s implications suggest that businesses incorporate business diplomacy as a strategic tool at the managerial and organizational levels.

The Challenges of Developing an Indonesian Travel Corridor: Bintan Resorts in Singapore as a Study Case

“…Alammar et al state that business diplomacy is a way to constructively engage and negotiate with multiple business and non-business stakeholders, mitigate geopolitical and commercial risk, and influence actors within the global arena (Alammar & Pauleen, 2015). Business diplomacy has capabilities to 1) Analyze geopolitical risks to their operations at both global and market-specific levels, 2) Identify the governmental and nongovernmental actors "geopolitical stakeholders" who shape those risks, 3) Develop multilevel, heterogeneous networks of information and influence, 4) Create coalitions among the geopolitical stakeholders based on shared interests to put pressure on reluctant collaborators and marginalize "problem actors"., 5) Integrate these elements into a holistic, business diplomacy strategy to promote the firm's objectives and manage geopolitical risk (Riordan, 2014).…”