About this event

Join us on Friday, May 10 for a special lecture presented by Mike Peng, Jindal Chair of Global Strategy at University of Texas at Dallas, who will discuss the topic of Corporate Diplomacy and Exit Strategies. Additionally, our guest discussant Evis Sinani, Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark will provide additional comments and remarks following Prof. Peng's presentation.

Abstract

Corporate diplomacy refers to the use of nonmarket (political and social) strategies by firms to both respond to and potentially shape country diplomacy. Like country diplomacy, corporate diplomacy demands a constant and delicate balancing act. This presentation highlights the importance of corporate diplomacy in the exit strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs), especially during periods of diplomatic tensions between the MNEs’ home and host countries.

We introduce a framework supported by four case examples that illuminate how MNEs can manage stakeholder pressures from different countries by improving their corporate diplomacy endeavors. These case examples are: (1) McDonald’s exit from Russia, (2) Pfizer’s decision to stay in Russia, (3) HSBC global headquarters’ exit from Hong Kong, and (4) Byte Dance’s global headquarters’ decision to stay in China.

In a world marked by escalating geopolitical tensions among major economies, establishing best practices in corporate diplomacy becomes indispensable for MNEs as they navigate the complexities of exiting from or sustaining their presence in a given country.

Date: Friday, May 10, 2024

Time: 10:00 am - 11:30 am PDT

Location: Room SG2800 - 500 Granville St., Vancouver, BC, V6C 1W6

Registration: The event is free and open to anyone interested, but registration is required.

Inquiries: beedie-events@sfu.ca

About the speakers

Mike Peng (PhD, University of Washington, Seattle) is the Jindal Chair of Global Strategy and Executive Director of the Center for Global Business at the Jindal School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas. He is a National Science Foundation Career Award winner and a Fellow of the Academy of International Business and Asia Academy of Management. With over 60,000 Google citations, he is among the top 1% most-cited researchers worldwide in the field of business and economics. His market-leading textbooks, Global Business, Global Strategy, and GLOBAL, are studied in over 50 countries, and have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese. His consulting clients include AstraZeneca, MTR Hong Kong, Texas Instruments, UK Government Office for Science, and The World Bank.

In Canada, Peng served as an expert reviewer for Canada Research Chair and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He gave research seminars at Alberta, HEC, Ivey, and Manitoba; and presented papers at conferences in Banff, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. At SFU, he gave research seminars in 2008, 2013, and 2014; delivered a Pacific Forum lecture and joined the festivities that inaugurated the Jack Austin Centre for Asian Pacific Business Studies in 2009; and cochaired two academic conferences in 2017 and in 2022. In 2024, he is a Beedie Family Visiting Fellow.

Evis Sinani is Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. She serves as the Academic Director of the Graduate Diploma Program in International Business and as a member of the Academic Council at CBS. In her research she has studied the investment strategies of firms and explored the relevance of local contexts for the strategies of MNEs in emerging markets. Her current research interests lie in the intersection of international business and global strategy, exploring the ramifications of global competition on spillovers of foreign direct investment, and analyzing how geopolitics influences firm’s investment strategies.

This session will be moderated by Jing Li, Professor of International Business and Director of the Jack Austin Centre for Asia Pacific Business Studies, at Simon Fraser University Beedie School of Business, Canada.