Research emphasizing international customer engagement (ICE) has increased considerably recently given the globalization of technology and the subsequent complex variety of tastes, needs, and wants that have emerged in the marketplace. As there is a relative scarcity of ICE applications in the international marketing domain, this study evaluates the topic in considerable detail by introducing its intellectual structure through citation and co-citation analysis. Multidimensional scaling is used to introduce a network configuration of the ICE literature with bibliometric information taken from the Web of Science database. Utilizing over one decade of data, the intellectual structure of ICE research is used as a foundation to advance an integrative framework to assist in the identification of possible future research directions for the domain. Taken together, this approach is intended to advance the ICE topic in multiple directions to develop the field.

This research investigates the application of the psychological ownership concept in the context of importer-exporter relationship (IER) management. Building on Kim et al.'s (2024) finding that relationship building is a core aspect of psychological ownership, this study aims to explore the relationships between importers' psychological ownership towards their exporting partners and IER-based relational capital. A qualitative exploratory study with 14 French importers from various industries revealed five dimensions of psychological ownership, as identified by Jussila et al. (2015) in their meta-analysis: importers’ responsibility and territoriality, importers’ efficiency, importers’ identity, and importers’ belongingness feeling towards the exporter partner. Our findings also show that these dimensions are linked to elements of IER-based relational capital, including trust, commitment, and the reciprocity norm.

Firms’ perceived innovativeness can grant MNCs a distinct competitive advantage among consumers. While stakeholder orientation has been shown to drive innovation, little is known about how and why perceptions of firm orientations toward different stakeholder groups, e.g., customers, employees, and society, drive consumers’ perceptions of firm innovativeness in certain countries, but not in others. To expand this research stream, the authors apply information integration theory rationales and analyze the influence of perceived stakeholder orientations toward customers, employees, and society on perceived firm innovativeness across 22 countries. They additionally study the role of country development in these effects. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, they uncover varying effects of perceived stakeholder orientations on firm innovativeness and varying moderations of the development of a country. The insights provide direct suggestions for decision-makers seeking to understand how perceived firm stakeholder orientations affect consumer-perceived firm innovativeness in different countries.