We study how a multinational corporation may take advantage of geopolitical tensions to further its goals. We maintain that multinationals can influence the diplomatic relationship between the host and the home countries by acting as a diplomatic broker between the two. We advance the concept of corporate diplomatic activities to describe this strategy and to theorize its benefits and risks. To this end, we adopt a history-to-theory approach and examine the role the US multinational Standard Oil of New Jersey played in settling a diplomatic impasse between the United States and Colombia in the 1910s and 1920s. We show that the multinational can mobilize its political resources and capabilities at home to increase the host government's bargaining power vis-à-vis the home country and, in return, obtain business benefits in the host country. The corporate diplomatic activities, however, can backfire. If the multinational invests in site-specific assets in the host country after successfully negotiating on the host country’s behalf, the host government can use these assets as "hostages" to pressure the multinational into negotiating on its behalf again in the multinational's home country.

我们研究跨国公司如何利用地缘政治紧张局势来进一步实现其目标。我们认为，跨国公司可以通过充当东道国和母国之间的外交斡旋者来影响东道国和母国之间的外交关系。我们提出企业外交活动的概念来描述这一战略并对其收益和风险进行理论分析。为此，我们采用从历史到理论的方法，考察美国跨国公司新泽西标准石油公司在解决 1910 年代和 1920 年代美国与哥伦比亚之间的外交僵局中所发挥的作用。我们表明，跨国公司可以调动其国内的政治资源和能力，以增加东道国政府相对于母国的议价能力，从而在东道国获得商业利益。然而，企业的外交活动可能会适得其反。如果跨国公司在代表东道国谈判成功后，在东道国投资特定场地资产，东道国政府可以利用这些资产作为“人质”，迫使跨国公司再次在跨国公司母国代表其进行谈判。