從企業外交到企業外交官 / The quest toward competitiveness, legitimacy and sustainability in our globalized world involves a growing number of factors; not only financial, marketing or commercial (called market parameters) but also political, legal, social, environmental (non-market parameters). That is where “business diplomacy” (such as stakeholder management, issue management and environmental scanning) comes in. This unique concept has been coined to ensure the link between multinational companies and their non-market environments. As a matter of fact however, a position of “business diplomat” does not exist yet. The domains of business diplomacy are horizontally splited between different business departments and vertically decentralized across different geographic levels. The strategies and actions resulting from this siloed approach are likely to be inconsistent, inefficient and even counterproductive. My model is designed to fill this gap between theory and practice and create an integrated approach toward the non-market environments. The central argument is to superimpose the domains and layers of business diplomacy, instead of displaying them side-by-side. The ensuing intersections give rise to new areas which form a new domain at the interface between the horizontal overlaps and vertical interdependencies of the non-market context. I propose that this domain should be the responsibility of a new business position: the “business diplomat”. Keywords: Non-market environments, Public Affairs, Corporate Political Activities

The thesis deals with the present functions of the honorary consuls and their importance to the business diplomacy and international trade. The general part is focused on the historical development of the consular representation, the codification of the international law related to the consular relations and business diplomacy. The practical part analyzes the results obtained by questionnaire from the Czech honorary consuls.