National customer orientation: a framework, propositions and agenda for future research

Purpose This paper aims to propose a new country-level construct, national customer orientation, to provide a benchmark for global headquartered managers’ decisions and scholars investigating cross-national research. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual framework and unique propositions are developed that focus on how one macro-economic driver, e.g. the wealth of a country, and one macro-marketing driver, e.g. customer price sensitivity, affect national customer orientation during and after global economic downturns such as recessions and a pandemic. Findings An agenda setting section proposes distinct theoretical, empirical and managerial themes for future research aimed at testing the propositions at the country and organization levels over time. Research limitations/implications Although the new construct offers substantial benefits for scholars and managers, current measures of national customer orientation are limited to data provided by the World Economic Forum or expensive primary survey-based research that restrict the number of countries, respondents and time periods. Practical implications The new national-level customer orientation construct and propositions about its drivers over time promise to provide global managers a country-level customer-based benchmark so that they can better understand, set expectations and manage customer orientation across different countries over time. Originality/value Research on market and customer orientation is consistently designated a priority by academics and practitioners. However, most previous studies exclusively focus at the micro organizational-level, with less known on how customer orientation varies at the macro country-level and over time.