*Global Business Challenges and the Role of Corporate Diplomacy DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98492*

production and employment. In many cases, this will involve new patterns of growth, energy and technology.

Placing the outcomes of the 2008 global crisis in a long-term perspective, we are living under "the end of normal" since the challenges for actual growth have become deeper. Among those challenges, James Galbraith [13] highlights:


In this scenario, how is the corporate diplomacy business model engaging in the "new normal"? How are corporate diplomats adjusting to this "new normal"?

Considering that the conceptualization of resilience has been reframed in terms of flexible adaptation to turbulent and unpredictable market dynamics, corporate diplomats have displayed resilience in a time characterized by slow global growth. They are getting more proactive in pursuing new policies:


To achieve these targets, some strategies have been adopted:


In short, corporate diplomats cannot be committed to old management habits. Today's new technologies transform commercial capabilities (Big Data, CRM data, social media platforms). Technology transforms the business scenario as the result of the diffusion of new practices at the micro-level. Focusing on cut reduction and underestimating a company's exposure to technological disruption is certainly a wrong strategy. In other words, the current business scenario required the rebuilding of strategies to modernize commercial capabilities and management profiles. In this new management scenario, corporate diplomats should focus:


What is at stake is the ability of corporate diplomats to enhance profitable organic growth that requires the identification of the vulnerabilities in a scenario where the digital economy is transforming how companies identify, understand and serve their customers.

In this context, how competitiveness and productivity have been put together in the attempt to promote better performance under the corporate diplomacy model? Corporate diplomats require new tools and lenses to understand how technology affects industries, consumer products companies, distributors, equipment manufacturers and many other businesses. Among current digital strategies:


The digitization of the economies is also affecting the future of fundraising. It is worth remembering that in the last ten years, mainly after the 2008 global crisis, the increasing digitalization of financial transactions is also related to changes in financial competition on behalf of the expansion of the new non-bank competitors called fintechs, especially since 2010, has revealed a new articulation between finance and technology. As a result of the advance of fintechs, big banks have begun to establish collaborative partnerships with them in order to produce new technological solutions in the areas of payment systems, insurance, financial consultancy and management, besides digital currencies. In this digital environment, new technologies – such as advanced analytics, blockchain, big data, robotics, artificial intelligence, besides new forms of encryption and biometrics – have enabled the provision of innovations in financial products and services that could challenge current central banks' patterns of policy and regulation. In fact, there is still a lot of uncertainties in a context where, for instance, EU regulators have adopted a rather passive approach with messages to caution firms and investors. However, since the year of 2017, the

interest in cryptocurrencies and related digital assets has been increasing. Crypto assets have also been considered as an alternative through the venture capital sector despite concerns about anonymity, price volatility, liquidity and transparency. The expansion of the emerging cryptocurrencies includes:


Indeed, corporate diplomacy takes part of the "new normal" where analytics and big data tools, among other innovations, are being used to build strategies within a digital ecosystem that might include an internal team to manage the ecosystem.

Moreover, climate change is other driver of management transformations. In 2030, global greenhouse gas emissions could be between 13 billion and 15 billion tonnes higher than the level required tokeep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius. Indeed, policy makers are currently at pressure to make progress since it is urgent to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In this attempt, governments should have to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by around 25 percent and 55 percent lower than 2017 to limit global warming to 2 degrees and 1.5 degrees Celsius respectively.

Considering this background, climate finance can be a tool to accelerate effective de-carbonization of the economy by means of (a) progress on energy efficiency, (b) de-carbonization, (c) electrification carbon capture and storage, (d) afforestation and reforestation. Overall, global and local investments in electricity continue to fall far short of what is needed to close the energy access gap. In terms of technologies, more than half of total amount of finance committed to electricity in 2015– 2016 was related to renewable projects, mainly on-shore wind and solar panels. Although there has been a huge amount of investment in renewable energy technologies, the scaling up global investment requires declining prices for renewables.

Climate finance refers to financial resources invested in mitigation and adaptation projects through financial instruments including loans, grants and guarantees. Today, restructuring energy policies to face climate change require comprehensive solutions in order to include issues related to regulation and finance, technology and innovation, governance and politics, besides environment and social inclusion. The results of global negotiations highlight many challenges to decarbonize the economies. First, there is the climate finance challenge as private actors are the main actors of the investment process while the governments lead the climate change negotiations. Second, there is the educational challenge both between children, young people and professionals to face the requirements to improve teaching practices towards the environment and disaster risk reduction. Third, there is a mismatch between the actions of the ministries of environment and the ministries of economy and finance all around the world. Indeed, global negotiations reveal the lack of articulation between governments and the private sector in order to promote changes in investment patterns and to face education challenges towards a green economy.

The articulation of corporate diplomacy with innovations in climate finance might be consistent with 2-degree pathways. Considering the global investment landscape, the case for climate action has never been stronger it is a must to examine carefully this important aspect of our real economies in a way that leads to a better

understanding of the current role of corporate diplomats as energy investments have been increasingly tied to the private sector. As a result, investment banks, asset managers, investors and managers have key role in the diversification of energy investments. Regarding private climate finance, investment projects oriented to adaptation and mitigation have been locally financed by private resources. Taking into account this background, which are the challenges for private equity investments in energy projects in the near future to cope with the Paris ambition?

Today, comprehensive solutions are required to consider regulation and finance, technology and innovation, governance and politics, environment and social issues. There is the need to overcome the lack of articulation between governments and the private sector so as to promote changes in investment patterns. In this attempt, corporate diplomacy can fill the gap and follow some guiding principles:


In short, the perception of a trade-off between good ESG practices (environmental and social governance) and financial performance is being replaced by new business strategies lead by corporate diplomats. A business sector is a living organism whose ethos is the result of a complex combination of customs, norms, beliefs, habits. Changes in business conventions towards responsible investment rely on norms, expectations and actions that could favor long-run investments with inclusiveness. The search for responsible investment should not be separated from sustainable social and economic development. Responsible investment should be a key feature of the reorganization of social interactions since it related to the creation and adoption of guidelines towards ethical practices in business culture. The aim is to modify the relationships among stakeholders, that is to say, among investors, managers, employees, clients, communities and governments.
