increasing economic, social, and political interdependencies around the world. Consequently, public relations as a discipline are more often charged with managing communication and relationships between organizations and their stakeholders on an international level (Verciˇ c, ˇ ۲۰۱۳b). As more actors consciously use public relations globally, its description and explanation gain on the global level in importance. Yet “in a global context, systematic empirical research in public relations is rare” (Verciˇ c, ˇ ۲۰۱۳a; p. 17).

Although there is a noticeable rise in publications on international and global public relations, Wakefield (2011) noted “the scarcity of theory specific to public relations in global organizations.” Ni (2013) proposed two major perspectives for the examination of public relations in the global(ization) context: cross-cultural comparison (comparing practices in different countries) and intercultural interaction (communication in intercultural settings). Curtin and Gaither (2007) identified four clusters of studies in international public relations: (1) analyses of how national cultures influence public relations practice, (2) analyses of the relevance of US-centric public relations models in other countries, (3) comparisons of public relations practices across regions or countries through case studies, and (4) studies of international public relations practiced by governments. One can note that many authors from the United States classify studies done in other countries as international public relations. Jain, De Moya, & Molleda, 2014 reviewed articles on international public relations published from 2006 to ۲۰۱۱ in 12 peer reviewed journals. They found that 77% of 200 journal articles identified were concerned with domestic public relations practice in a region/nation other than the US, only 18% with cross-country analyses and 5% with global issues or organizations. International public relations in academic journals predominantly means public relations practiced in a country other than the home country of the publication (and is often written by domestic researchers from within those countries and cultures). There is an obvious scarcity of empirical research on international and global public relations.

This article tries to close the research gap by reviewing the status of international public relations theorizing and research and reporting on a pan-European study into international public relations practices in the corporate sector. Multinational enterprises are at the very center of economic globalization (Kleinert, 2001). How do they and how should they practice international public relations?