The Re-Consideration of Business Diplomacy and Corporate Social Responsibility for International Business in the Post-Covid-19 World

Abstract

In the recent world, globalization is recently meta-trend making opportunities easier to access for many companies with the international expansion for business to increase competitiveness. Nevertheless, the Covid-19 pandemic has posed the flawed point of globalization as well as international business. The world’s trade and economic relations among multinational companies (MNCs) were halted due to the policies of international mobility restrictions of many nations. The world COP23 conference posed many global challenges requiring collective actions from the private sector and MNCs via raising stricter regulations and norms in the post-Covid19 era. Hence the internationalization strategy will be harder than before. If a company would like to join global economics, it must handle many stakeholders concerning corporate social responsibilities (CSR). CSR will not only define the corporate’s competitiveness but also identify the corporate’s brand in all international markets. CSR is the objective of many MNCs as a strategy for enhancing engagement towards society, the environment, and economy, etc. Dealing with many external stakeholders is a very comprehensive task for a company going global. This is where business diplomacy could provide a connection between stakeholders and the CSR strategy. However, the role of this function is underrated. This paper aims at identifying the effectiveness of business diplomacy with CSR’s function to enhance corporate competitiveness. Specifically, based on the previous studies and model, this paper will form an interrelation ground of these two factors for international business.