Corporate Diplomacy and Institutional Upheaval in Host Countries: The ‘Arab Spring’ Experience of Two Canadian Multinationals in Egypt

Abstract

Purpose

In this study, we explored the behaviour of two Canadian multinational companies operating in the context of Arab Spring events in Egypt in 2011.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted a fine-grained analysis of 171 documents of various secondary sources to understand the behaviour of the two firms in Egypt between 25 January 2011 and 30 June 2012.

Findings

We suggest that corporate diplomacy should be viewed as portfolios of interdependent actions rather than reactions to discrete events. We also underline the importance for organisations to have a proactive, holistic and inclusive corporate diplomacy strategy, with the objective to secure and balance both explicit political/legal licence and implicit social licence.

Research limitations/implications

We intentionally focused our empirical analysis on two Canadian firms operating in the same host country and belonging to the same industry. It would be useful to carry similar research in different organisational and institutional contexts.

Citation

Taleb, A., Ratiu, C. and Molz, R. (2017), "Corporate Diplomacy and Institutional Upheaval in Host Countries: The ‘Arab Spring’ Experience of Two Canadian Multinationals in Egypt", International Business Diplomacy (Advanced Series in Management, Vol. 18), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 241-264. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1877-636120170000018009