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In this chapter we approach the issue of Business Diplomacy (BD) from a historical perspective, showing how this activity has been performed since the ancient Greece. In particular, we give a brief overview of the main BD concepts used, starting with the proxenos, the “pioneers” in the BD field, until present days.

The analysis is grounded on a theoretical approach backed by a comprehensive overview of the representative literature in the field of BD. We identify and discuss the main challenges to be faced by BD in a globalized world, dominated by multinational corporations (MNCs).

We show that BD has been practiced for centuries and nowadays is still performed by honorary consuls and chambers of commerce. In a globalized world, BD is being assimilated by MNCs either as their main activity or as an auxiliary one becoming a key tool and mindset toward securing their market reputation, positioning, and legitimacy.

Apart from the historical overview of the beginnings and evolution of the main diplomatic actors and activities, the chapter proposes new concepts and legal frameworks for the actual BD field such as: consulariate instead of consulate (devoted to business) and chancellariate instead of embassy (devoted to political affairs).

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are experiencing a number of major challenges in the international business arena. Can business diplomacy help them to deal with these challenges effectively? In this introductory chapter we conceptualize and identify the relationship between MNCs’ international business diplomatic activities and firm performance.

We conducted a literature review and interviews with five large MNCs that are operating in distinctive industries. Business diplomatic activities have been classified into three particular areas to support the analysis, namely: (1) MNC–Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) relations, (2) MNC–Host Government relations, and (3) MNC–Local Community relations.

The main findings suggest that international business diplomacy has a direct positive effect on firm performance with regard to so-called soft or nonfinancial indicators. These indicators include knowledge sharing, reputation, company image, and marketing possibilities. The effect can in turn lead to a better financial performance and market stance in the long run.

The results of this study are important for the future awareness and execution of business diplomacy in large MNCs.

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.

This chapter focuses on the role played by both companies and universities on the dissemination of services and courses related to Business Diplomacy (BD). Special attention is given to the partnerships between companies and universities and to how BD is taught by universities around the world.

With an exploratory analysis technique, we have surveyed the websites of 22 companies and 20 universities and institutions, belonging to various countries, engaged in activities related to BD (i.e. services supply, courses at different stages of the academic curricula, workshops, seminars, training etc.).

The objective of the analysis was twofold: first, to give a better understanding of the concept of BD and of the various meanings associated with it; the results indicate that in both cases the practiced concept of BD is converging to the canonical set of diplomatic functions; second, to offer useful insights to practitioners in the field of BD by looking at the type of BD courses covered by the academic curricula of various universities and BD services offered by market companies.

This chapter presents a comprehensive analysis of the BD issue, going beyond its treatment as a mere auxiliary activity. It also offers a detailed overview of diplomacy’s main functions and adjuvant activities, with the purpose of advancing organisational charts’ structures inside companies, and academic syllabi offerings by universities.

One of the reasons the science and art of business diplomacy is interesting, is because it puts the role of the nation in another, somewhat reduced, perspective. Instead of the nation, it puts a company at the focal point of an exchange of interests with NGOs and other national and international players. This is a reflection of a world that becomes ever more complicated: a truly multiactor world, implicating great global challenges for international companies.

However, changing the perspective from the nation state to that of business is not enough, no matter how multinational or big the enterprise is. To have a true perspective on the challenges diplomacy faces, it is better to add another perspective. A perspective in which the business and the multiactor aspect merge: in associations.

Here the international and diplomatic dimensions of associations are defined, a model for change is presented, and cases are discussed. Each case is discussed in terms of business diplomacy, using recent literature and definitions. Certainly not all actions by associations can be called diplomatic, but some can and these are significant.

Combining this insight and the possible impact of associations with available literature on the definition and nature of business (economic, corporate, commercial) diplomacy, a different light will be shed on the concept of business diplomacy. Perhaps it is better to speak about “multiactor diplomacy,” in which traditional, business, and other forms of diplomacy all have their place. The chapter ends with conclusions and specific recommendations.

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

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.

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.

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.

A number of scholars including Benno Signitzer and Jacquie L'Etang have proposed public diplomacy as an alternative model to describe and/or inform the practices of public relations. However, international relations and political science scholars claim major differences between public diplomacy and PR, and few studies have sought to reconcile these claims and counter‐claims. The purpose of this paper is to report a comparative analysis of key concepts and principles of public diplomacy.

This article reports a comparative analysis of key concepts and principles of public diplomacy and the “new diplomacy” as described by Shaun Riordan and public relations (PR) as defined in Excellence theory and other contemporary models of PR to identify commonalties as well as divergences, and discusses how these can inform PR theory and practice.

This analysis shows similarities between these fields of practice, as well as six unique concepts and principles of public diplomacy and “new diplomacy” that inform corporate diplomacy and organisational diplomacy as an alternative paradigm to “public relations”.

Reconceptualising PR as corporate and organisational diplomacy involves much more than a name change. It recasts PR within alternative theoretical frameworks that are significantly different to those of dominant paradigms of PR and informs new and refined approaches to practice.

Adopting the concepts and principles of public diplomacy and “new diplomacy” also would provide a more ethical and societally‐orientated approach to PR.

Most studies comparing public diplomacy and PR have focussed on commonalities with a view to expanding PR's territorial claim or gaining validation of PR. This analysis takes the opposite approach, identifying concepts and principles of public diplomacy and “new diplomacy” that contribute to an alternative paradigm of PR that is more effective, more societally‐orientated, more ethical, and ultimately more publicly accepted.

Science and technology diplomacy (STD) is an emerging area in the field of public policy and technology management. The purpose of this study is to overview the concept of STD based on the two approaches “Science and Technology” and “Diplomacy” to explain its necessity for Non-Aligned Movement member countries.

To design the work, principal domains and sub-domains of STD are identified based on the thematic analysis. By using MAXQDA software, the initial codes are analyzed and validated for the case study. Then, six areas and 29 sub-areas are identified based on the fuzzy Delphi and the framework is designed.

STD is defined from six scopes, including political, economics, law and legal issues, social sciences, philosophy and science and technology. Each scope has its own mechanism that is discussed in the article.

This work is one of the first in the literature of science and technology policy making.

The purpose of this article is to compare the American and British approaches to public diplomacy and the impact that has on the role of business.

Since the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, both the UK and US governments have been examining their public diplomacy activities with a view to a more effective use of their resources as well as the involvement of other parties. Given the strength of the economic relationship between these two countries, it is instructive to compare their resulting definitions of public diplomacy to attitudes found in the transatlantic business community. To that end, their current definitions of public diplomacy will be examined in light of data gathered from business survey of transatlantic companies conducted by UK Trade and Investment and BritishAmerican Business Inc. as well as views from those working in public diplomacy.

The US has increasingly taken a view of public diplomacy that conflates its political diplomatic agenda concerned with national interest and security with its general outreach in terms of information and dialogue. This makes it more difficult for business to effectively support broader public diplomacy objectives.

This paper provides a different view of US public diplomacy activities that may be a useful guide in revising their approach so as to make it more similar to the UK version which values more of a separation between political and public diplomacy.