Examining the role of cross-cultural factors in the international market on customer engagement and purchase intention

Abstract

Customer engagement (CE) refers to an organization's effort to develop relationships with individual customers through personalized interactions using multiple available channels. The goal of such CE is to gain new customer and to retain loyal customers. In the last decade there have been many studies on CE, particularly in the domestic or local market context, which lack generalizability. Also, there is only limited research on CE in the international market context focusing on the cross-cultural aspects of customers. Thus, there is clearly a research gap. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the role of cross-cultural factors in the international market on CE and their influence on customer purchase intention. After reviewing existing theories and literature, a conceptual model was developed. Later, the model was validated using structural equation modeling with a sample of 432 customers of different countries in Asia and Europe. The study found that there is a significant impact of cross-cultural factors in the international market on customer engagement, which in turn impacts customers' purchase intention in the international market. This study also proposes and examines a rival model to determine the efficiency of the proposed model.