Global Customer Engagement

Advances in technology and analytics have stimulated competition in the global marketplace and augmented interactions among customers globally. It is therefore imperative for firms to understand the behavioral activities of customers around the world to keep them engaged. To do so, the authors recommend that managers familiarize themselves with countries' cultural and economic factors. The authors use Hofstede's cultural dimensions and country-level economic factors to explain the national differences in customer motives while engaging with the firm. This study explains that national cultural dimensions exert an effect on the relationships in the customer engagement (CE) framework proposed by Pansari and Kumar (2017). The authors discuss and develop research propositions on the impact of the relevant cultural and economic dimensions that affect the various proposed relationships in the original CE framework. Through this modified CE framework, they introduce the concept of global customer engagement to help firms design marketing strategies aligned with a country's culture and economy to obtain improved CE and enhanced firm performance.