From pre-internationalization to post-internationalization: relationship marketing perspective

Although several aspects of the internationalization process and relationship marketing strategy have been addressed in the literature, there is a lack of a unified theoretical framework that explains the impact of relationship marketing strategy on internationalization process. This study was undertaken as an initial attempt to address the role of relationship marketing in the internationalization process. To understand this concept, the internationalization process is divided into two stages: pre-internationalization, which focuses on overcoming the psychic distance and post-internationalization, which focuses on market entry and positioning. At the different stages of internationalization, different variables of relationship marketing assume relatively greater levels of importance, which are likely to have implications for the implementation of an internationalization process. Through a thorough analysis of the literature, and a review of a number of international examples, three research propositions are provided and streams for further research necessary to understand this neglected area of research are then provided.