Making Trade Missions Work: A Best Practice Guide to International Business and Commercial Diplomacy

Trade missions are a key commercial diplomacy instrument of governments around the world. Via trade missions, governments and politicians aim to promote their home country economy abroad as well as to support firms to explore and enter new markets. Despite its widespread usage, and the claims made by governments about the positive results of trade missions, actual robust evidence of trade mission effectiveness is scarce. The reason for this lack of evidence is that trade missions are mostly studied and organized in ‘isolation’, disconnected from the participating firms’ level of international experience and international business competences. 

Huub Ruël, PhD is Professor of Global Talent Management and International Business and Diplomacy at Hotelschool The Hague – The Netherlands and research associate at the Human Resource Management Research Department of the University of Twente (The Netherlands). He is an expert on commercial diplomacy, business diplomacy and technology enabled global talent management in the international hospitality industry.