This article reviews the literature of commercial diplomacy during the period 1960-2014 from a management angle and is organized around four major themes: (1) government's export/trade promotion ...function; (2) institutional/organizational arrangements; (3) managerial roles and activities; and (4) interaction between commercial diplomats and businesses. A complementary quantitative analysis tracing current research trends reveals the emergence of relevant publications at the end of the 1970s and a real increase after 2000. It also confirms the relative scarcity of commercial diplomacy literature focusing on the business and management dimension. Gaps in current literature are identified, and suggestions for further research are presented.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
Drawing on literature from various disciplines that directly address commercial diplomacy (diplomacy, political economy and international marketing) as well as empirical research, this ...article brings to commercial diplomacy the approach of management and organizational science. Methods used include qualitative case study research from in-depth semi-structured interviews with numerous commercial diplomats and related stakeholders, such as concerned business firms. A large share of the data was gathered in Switzerland. Naray analyses the roles of commercial diplomats by creating a framework composed of three main groups of roles — facilitation (F), advisory (A) and representation (R) — or ‘FAR’. These three roles cut across activity areas such as trade promotion, investments, ‘made-in’ and corporate image, cooperation in science and technology, and the protection of intellectual property. Two key dimensions of factors that shape the nature of commercial diplomacy are identified: organizational (such as arrangements between ministries and trade-promotion organizations, etc.); and individual (education, background and motivation). Implications arising from the organizational dimension concern organizational design, seeking effective arrangements between the commercial diplomat’s organizational unit and the headquarters. The individual dimension implies rethinking recruitment and talent management. If governments are to reorganize their commercial diplomacy, these two dimensions should be considered and acted upon.
International communities of professionals matter generally, and matter in international trade reforms in particular. In this paper we explore the extension of scientific knowledge on liberal trade ...regimes, observing how professionals are becoming increasingly important and affect trade liberalization strategies based on the mutual exchange of knowledge. From recent developments in the American hemisphere, and specifically the case of the unsuccessful negotiations regarding the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), we identify some particularities concerning the trade policy community, suggesting that foreign trade policy is not about regulating a market, but about interconnecting distant markets, which has its own type of policy-making problems, as for example bringing together the worlds of regulators and trade negotiators.
