Business diplomacy management: a conceptual overview and an integrative framework

Abstract

Business diplomacy is a way for business to constructively engage and negotiate with multiple business and non-business stakeholders, mitigate geopolitical and commercial risk and influence actors within the global arena. In this paper, we have surveyed, analysed and synthesised business diplomacy and related literature with the aim of developing a deeper understanding of business diplomacy. The findings of this study include an integrative definition of business diplomacy, a conceptual framework of business diplomacy's core categories and a descriptive theory of business diplomacy. These results should help improve managers' and academics' understanding of what business diplomacy is, how to organise it and what benefits may be realised. This paper should help solidify business diplomacy as a serious field of academic and practitioner research.