Cultural and global perspectives to relationship management in international public relations: The Sino-Chilean case study

There is still debate on whether a global public relations model may be applied in any cultural setting. This article contributes to this discussion by presenting empirical evidence about how Chilean export firms develop public relations strategies to Chinese audiences and the dual dimension – global and cultural – of their practice. Two main findings are discussed: on the one hand, Chilean companies have mostly developed a global approach to reach general audiences. On the other, the actual practice of relationship management – through their firm’s executives – is carried out by placing culture as critical for successful public relations efforts. Specifically, Chilean executives use guanxi as the main driver of their relationship management.