The literature on co-creation of stakeholder and brand identities draws from (and reflects) a focus on cultures with dominant independent selves. However, this type of co-creation in a global context requires understanding of how cultural differences can simultaneously shape identity development and co-construction, from both a brand and a multiple stakeholder point of view. Processes involved in such a reciprocal co-creation of identity, as well as outcomes, are likely to differ across cultures, especially in the way brands, consumers, and, by extension, other stakeholders use one another in their respective identity construction processes. This study offers a first-of-its-kind conceptual framework, together with a set of propositions, that unpacks how cultural differences might affect such reciprocal co-creation processes. Drawing from this framework, the study advances both the cross-cultural and the co-creation literature by (1) offering several overlooked theoretical, managerial, and methodological implications and (2) highlighting important but currently under-developed avenues that future research could apply to more complex, multiple brand–stakeholder relationships.

• Benjamin Voyer(ESCP Europe Business School, UK)
• Minas Kastanakis(ESCP Europe Business School, UK)
• Ann Kristin Rhode(ESCP Europe Business School, France)