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Purpose – Consumer purchase intention in cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) has received momentum in international marketing. However, little is known about purchase intention toward smaller retailers with country-specific websites, known as partial online internationalization (POI) retailers. While consumer CBEC purchasing involves uncertainty, it is particularly challenging toward POI-retailers due to their unfamiliarity, hampering consumer purchasing and relationship building. Past research overlooks how purchase intentions can be increased in the presence of uncertainty, thereby creating prerequisites for relationship building. Drawing on relational exchange theory and consumer attitude literature, this study aims to explore purchase intention toward POI-retailers in CBEC from a relational view. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a survey with 364 respondents exposed to a real-life POI-retailer, the proposed model demonstrates greater predictive power for purchase intention compared to previous CBEC studies. Findings – The findings reveal that uncertainty negatively affects consumer trust but does not impact their attitude. Unexpectedly, purchase intention toward POI-retailers is primarily driven by consumer attitude and commitment, with trust having an insignificant effect on both commitment and purchase intention. Results also show the importance of nurturing favorable attitudes, as they serve as a key mediator of trust's effect on commitment and purchase intention. Originality/value – Building on relational exchange theory and extending its scope with attitude literature, we introduce its concepts into a unified model for developing a relational framework that has, thus far, been overlooked in scholarly research. The proposed relational framework offers novel insights into consumers' development of purchase intentions, highlighting the prerequisites for building relationships in the presence of uncertainty.

Purpose This paper argues that longstanding inconsistencies in psychic distance research arise from a fundamental locus problem: the construct has drifted away from its original definition as barriers to information flow between the firm and the market. The purpose is to re-establish the correct locus of psychic distance and identify the multilevel antecedents that shape firm-market information flow. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops a conceptual analysis grounded in Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul's (1975) definition. It synthesizes macro-, meso-and micro-level perspectives to build a multilevel framework that traces how country-level differences, firm-level characteristics and individual-level perceptions jointly influence firms' psychic distance. Findings The analysis shows that prior empirical inconsistencies stem from operationalizations that equate psychic distance with national cultural or institutional differences or with individual perceptions detached from firm-market interaction. Psychic distance emerges instead from the alignment or misalignment, between firm and market-specific information barriers. The framework clarifies that psychic distance is neither symmetrical nor stable, and that it varies across firms within the same country and across markets within the same host environment. Originality/value The paper introduces the notion of a locus problem and provides a clarified conceptual foundation for understanding psychic distance. By re-centering the construct on the firm-market relationship and specifying its multilevel antecedents, it offers a coherent explanation for mixed empirical results and a more precise basis for future operationalization and theory development.

PurposeThis paper focuses on interfirm multidimensional trust in high-tech firm internationalization. Firms (SMEs) that are small and resource-constrained collaborate with bridge-makers in the target markets in their quest for internationalization. Understanding how multidimensional trust develops between the firm and the bridge-maker is essential for a deeper understanding of firm internationalization. This paper aims to answer the two research questions: What dimensions of trust are crucial between the firm and the bridge-maker for enhancing firm internationalization? And what are the consequences of developing or not developing multidimensional trust between the firm and the bridge-maker for firm internationalization?Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses the case study method and is based on five cases of firm internationalization into 135 foreign markets.FindingsThis paper found that external factors sometimes alter firm internationalization. However, if the partnership develops multidimensional trust, it enhances long-term partnership and firm internationalization. More specifically, the partnership starts with a contractual trust, but developing competence and goodwill, trust can enhance long-term partnership and positively affect firm internationalization.Originality/valueTo the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study to use a multidimensional trust framework to understand firm-bridge-maker collaboration and its implications for firm internationalization.

This paper focuses on interfirm multidimensional trust in firm internationalization. Firms (SMEs) who are small and resource-constrained collaborate with bridge-makers in the target market in their internationalization quests. Multidimensional trust needs to be developed between the firm and the bridge-maker, which will have an impact on the firm internationalization in the target market. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to study how multidimensional trust is developed between the firm and the bridge-maker in the context of firm internationalization. Based on five cases of firm internationalization into 135 foreign markets, this paper found that firm internationalization is hampered because of the lack of development of different types of trust, and more importantly the competence trust does not develop between the firm and the bridge-maker. This has had negative consequences for firm internationalization. However, if the firm and the bridge-maker develop contractual trust, competence trust, and in some internationalization cases goodwill trust firm internationalization is enhanced and the collaboration is mutually beneficial for both parties. Propositions are suggested and a model on the effect of multidimensional trust on firm internationalization is developed. 

This paper examines firm internationalization in a politically fragmented market, where informal institutions dominate formal ones. This market has two competing zones, each governed by a rival political party. More specifically, this paper aims to address the following question: How does a firm navigate two competing zones in the same market? Drawing on a longitudinal case study of a Swedish SME entering the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The study introduces the concept of in-outsidership , a paradox whereby achieving network insidership in one political zone creates network outsidership in another. The firm's experience reveals how informal institutions, political rivalries, and embedded distributor relationships shape access to local business networks. By extending business network theory to highly politicized, institutionally divided contexts, this study challenges the assumption that network insidership is universally advantageous or transferable. The paper contributes to the B2B marketing and international marketing literature by conceptualizing in-outsidership as a context-dependent liability that complicates market access and strategic relationship building. Managerial implications underscore the importance of selecting politically aware partners and developing effective network strategies when entering contested institutional territories.

This study focuses on enhancing the understanding of how firm internationalization is triggered by investigating how firms cope with the lack of knowledge and networks when entering a foreign market. More specifically we are interested in answering the following research question: How do firms enter foreign markets without market-specific knowledge and market-specific network insidership? To this end, the present study implements a case study of 12 Swedish firms internationalizing into emerging markets. The study found that firms “graft” expert individuals to help firms penetrate foreign markets where they have no prior history or experience. Further, we observed the qualities of a specific type of actor we refer to as a “graftee” by describing grafting actions and showing how these graftees help firms acquire experiential knowledge and network insidership. Our empirical evidence shows that grafting impacts the form and process of internationalization, sometimes enabling an effectuation-driven market entry while, at other times, enabling a causation-driven process. 

This paper focuses on financial (bank) firms’ internationalization. We utilize and integrate literature from international dynamic marketing capability with business network theory. Financial firms in their internationalization quest need to offer competitive services to local customers but local regulations, lack of knowledge of local culture, and language, and other business-level obstacles such as the lack of knowledge about customers and the competitive environment of the target market hamper the path to be able to do so. Therefore, this paper aims to explore how a firm develops international dynamic marketing capability and penetrates foreign markets and networks by absorbing local capabilities into their organization. Based on qualitative case study research. We found that the focal firm already has different marketing capabilities but utilizing their business networks also can absorb local capabilities that enhance their international dynamic marketing capability and penetrate foreign networks.