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This chapter applies the business diplomacy concept to Brazil, a leading emerging economy and a member of the BRICS group. Brazil’s emergence as a new economic power has facilitated the emergence of several large national champions whose international behavior is understudied.

The chapter presents an extensive review of secondary sources and selective use of previous survey data compiled by the author.

This chapter adds to the literature on business diplomacy and contributes empirical research on a leading emerging power. Brazil’s ambitious diplomatic agenda is matched by the country’s growing number of internationalized companies. Brazilian corporate managers need to increase their business diplomacy competency to effectively leverage their presence and legitimacy abroad.

Additional case studies will foster a more robust theory regarding business diplomacy of emerging economies.

A growing number of cases of business diplomacy in Brazil will benefit both business and diplomacy communities and facilitate greater research collaboration.

How Brazilian business diplomats navigate between the boundaries of international business, diplomacy, and foreign policy are important questions for a country concerned with its international role and its goal of becoming a key actor in the international arena. A better understanding of how business diplomacy works in Brazil together with more case studies will benefit a new generation of business leaders.

The behavior of Brazilian business elites in international affairs remains largely unexplored. This work’s original contribution is precisely in the form of its focus on Brazilian business diplomats and how business diplomacy is exercised by Brazilian companies.

China’s open‐market reform and rapid economic growth have generated a tremendous surge in activity and market investment by multinational corporations (MNCs). By 2000, 400 of the 500 most famous MNCs had invested in China. One distinctive feature of China’ s business environment, its authoritarian political system, requires MNCs to practise strategic public affairs to interact constantly with the different levels of Chinese government, respond to the policies and further influence business policy formation. This paper proposes a conceptual model of MNC‐government bargaining that is composed of international political economy, dependency theory and agency theory. It then examines (1) the international and domestic influences on MNC‐government bargaining in China and (2) the strategies MNCs employed to influence Chinese laws for foreign business in their interests. A case study of the Chinese ban on direct selling operations in 1998 and Amway’s strategies to remove the ban is presented. Results suggest that effective public affairs should engage in the following activities: (1) issues management, (2) constantly and systematically analysing the MNC’s bargaining power with the host government, (3) selecting public affairs strategies based on the analysis of MNC‐government bargaining, (4) exercising relationship management, and (5) being ethical in its practice.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977 and its amendment – the Trade and Competitive Act of 1988 – are unique not only in the history of the accounting and auditing profession, but also in international law. The Acts raised awareness of the need for efficient and adequate internal control systems to prevent illegal acts such as the bribery of foreign officials, political parties and governments to secure or maintain contracts overseas. Its uniqueness is also due to the fact that the USA is the first country to pioneer such a legislation that impacted foreign trade, international law and codes of ethics. The research traces the history of the FCPA before and after its enactment, the role played by the various branches of the United States Government – Congress, Department of Justice, Securities Exchange commission (SEC), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); the contributions made by professional associations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICFA), the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), the American Bar Association (ABA); and, finally, the role played by various international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). A cultural, ethical and legalistic background will give a better understanding of the FCPA as wll as the rationale for its controversy.

Attempts to define some of the problems arising from the development of international business within the constraints of political geography, does this by using evidence from published research and informed opinion. Looks at the growth of international business, its effect on national economies, plus possible erosion of national sovereignty. Discusses how policies of international business and national governments, in a number of fields, conflict. States, although political boundaries and the existence of nation‐states are to some extent outdated by modern technology and from obstacles to trade and development, there may be serious disadvantages in reducing political constraints to enable the multinationals to operate more freely. Finalises that international regulation in some form of the multinational is essential to enable operations to be reconciled and co‐ordinated nationally.

This paper examines the role of government procurement as a social policy mechanism within a multilateral open trading system. Government regulations globally are being transformed to foster more responsible business conduct in multinational enterprises (MNEs). Yet, concern that sustainability may present a discriminatory barrier to trade has stalled the progress of sustainable public procurement (SPP) at the international level, raising questions regarding the role and scope of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) to align taxpayer-funded contracts with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals.

With a focus on social sustainability, this paper reviews the grey and academic literature to assess the changing landscape of public procurement policy and supply chain legislation in high-income countries.

Frontrunner nations are adopting a mandatory approach to sustainable public procurement and due diligence legislation is elevating supply chain risk from reputational damage to legal liability. While technological innovation and the clean, green production of manufactured goods dominates the sustainable public procurement literature, the social aspects of sustainability poverty, inequality and human rights remain underrepresented.

The scope of this paper is limited to the examination of government procurement covered by the WTO-GPA (2012). Smaller value contracts, under the WTO-GPA thresholds and the category of defence are beyond the scope of the paper.

The paper focusses on the underserved topic of social sustainability in business-to-government (B2G) – business to government – supply chains arguing that for responsible business conduct to become a competitive advantage, it must be more meaningfully rewarded on the demand-side of all taxpayer-funded contracts in organisation for economic co-operation and development countries. The paper introduces the idea of priceless procurement as a mechanism to build system capacity in the evaluation of non-financial sustainability objectives.

To build the capacity to stimulate competition based on social and environmental policy objectives, the paper introduces the concept of priceless procurement in B2G contracts.

In a globalized world where emerging markets are more important than ever, there is an increasing pressure on international businesses and governments to work together. The set of facilities known as commercial diplomacy combines the interests of both by highlighting new markets and investment opportunities.

In this chapter, we present a literature review based on 56 relevant publications to assess what we currently know of this important activity.

The results indicate that research on commercial diplomacy consists of many subtopics, resulting in a patchy understanding of the topic as a whole.

We discuss why integrative research focusing on the business–government relationship and the organization and the value of commercial diplomacy are needed from an international business perspective.

The Nature of Business Policy Business policy — or general management — is concerned with the following six major functions: