Firms' Political Strategies Abroad: Opening the Black Box of Commercial Diplomacy

When do policymakers alter public policy in response to firms’ corporate political actions? We argue that firms are more likely to be successful if they can normatively frame their requests to align with policymakers’ own objectives. The argument is illustrated in the context of investment disputes, where a foreign government’s actions are deemed to have violated a firm’s property rights. We show that diplomatic assistance from the firm’s home government is contingent on the firm’s own framing of the dispute. Normative frames that resonate with the home government’s foreign policy objectives in the host state are more likely to have significant interventions. We provide support for our arguments using three in-depth case studies that rely on extensive archival research supplemented with field interviews.