International Journal of Economic Practices and Theories, Vol. 4, No. 5, 2014, Special issue on Marketing and Business Development, e-ISSN 2247–7225 www.ijept.org 774 International Relationship Marketing: Stakeholders Selection Remains a Weakness in Emerging Markets by Federica Bressan, Paola Signori Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, Italy federica.bressan@univr.it, paola.signori@univr.it Abstract. Emerging markets represent an important growth opportunity that is often overlooked. However, the internationalization process within highly different cultural and geographical contexts becomes more complex and requires in depth information of local market characteristics, impacting stakeholder selection. Relying on a Relationship Marketing approach, the purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of how to obtain strategic information about emerging markets and the role of stakeholders that companies strategically involve. In the first research phase, an exploratory CAWI survey was conducted to understand emerging markets' relationship orientations in a particular industry: specifically the global kitchen furniture industry, characterized by strong orientations toward product design and service. All 56 Italian companies registered to the main furniture association were contacted, with a 70% response rate. The second research phase was qualitative, particularly suitable to extend a theory in different cultural contexts. Twelve top managers from eight companies of the first sample were interviewed, using a semi-structured survey protocol. Based on this mixed methodology, a pattern of strategically selected relationships for companies in an internationalization phase is developed. While a Relationship Marketing approach suggests the creation of a holistic stakeholder strategy, empirical research demonstrates that companies at the beginning take into consideration different priorities, keeping a low number of interactions with few stakeholders because relationship management is time consuming and expensive. As such, they select only a few partners, each one for specific objectives, and sometimes in an ad hoc fashion. Further research is needed to extend results to service companies. Key words: emerging markets, international relationship marketing, partners selection, relationship marketing. JEL classification: M31, F23, L14. 1 Introduction The internationalization process within highly different cultural and geographical contexts is becoming more complex and requires in depth information of local market characteristics, impacting stakeholder selection. In particular, pre and early stage relations are often critical when companies are trying to develop new networks without any previous experience or skilled mediators. Furthermore, in emerging markets, characterised by a high cultural and physical distance from traditional west markets, evaluation and selection of potential partners require important efforts and capabilities. This research tries to investigate critical behaviours that companies are adopting in establishing and developing their networks when dealing with distant stakeholders. 2 Literature background and research questions development This paper is based on Relationship Marketing (RM) and International Relationship marketing (IRM) theories, applying some of their fundamental concepts to the particular case of western companies entering emerging markets (EM), to study pre and early stage relations critical problems related to new stakeholder identification, evaluation and selection. Since decades the strategic importance of relations for a company in its business development has been confirmed. The main RM approach investigates the strategic importance of the creation and maintenance of long-term relationships and interactions with a multiplicity of subjects within a market (Berry, 1983; Levitt, 1983; Jackson, 1985) and it has been defined by Morgan and Hunt as “all marketing activities directed towards establishing, developing and