Commercial Diplomacy and International Business

Commercial diplomacy is a significant factor in the on-going process of globalization, yet there is a shortage of empirical research on this activity. This paper reports the results of an empirical study conducted among diplomats and managers. It identifies three dominant types of commercial diplomats: civil servant, generalist and business promoter. The paper shows how commercial diplomacy contributes to the promotion of international trade and corporate partnership, to the resolution of business conflicts and the marketing of a country as a location for foreign investments, R&D activities or tourist destination and "made-in". It presents the current trends in commercial diplomacy, examines the determinants of its value chain and service fees and makes a number of suggestions on how to improve performance given the growing willingness of governments to emphasize the business promotion approach.

About the authors

Michel Kostecki is Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the Université de Neuchâtel (Switzerland). He was founding director of The Enterprise Institute at the same university (1992 - 2001) and directed, for two years, the joint doctoral program in Management Science of the French-speaking Swiss universities and the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. During the Uruguay Round Dr. Kostecki was Counsellor in the GATT secretariat in Geneva. He has also been an Investment Manager at a financial company of one of the leading German banks, and Professor of Business Economics at the Université de Montréal (HEC) in Canada.

Email: [email protected]

Olivier Naray graduated in 2001 in political science (MA) at the faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland. He is also a graduate of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, International Affairs (MA) Austria (2002, 38th Diploma Course). Between 2003 and 2004 he worked as an advisor - including commercial affairs - for the Swiss Embassy in Hungary. He has worked as a researcher and teaching assistant at the Enterprise Institute, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland since November 2004. He is also PhD candidate in Management with the topic "Commercial Diplomacy and International Business Development".

Email: [email protected]