What makes an international business partnership successful? While it is accepted in the literature that relational exchange theory has a pivotal role to play in marketing, little research has been done to determine its impact in an international setting. By synthesising six complementary theories on inter-firm relationships and some initial findings from exploratory research, this paper proposes a conceptual framework of the key drivers of success in international business partnerships. Methodological issues associated with investigating such partnerships are also discussed.
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