More people worldwide claim themselves as cosmopolitans or world citizens. Yet, a cause-and-effect conceptualisation of cosmopolitan individuals is lacking, leading to a void of cosmopolitan discussions in IB. By synthesizing multidisciplinary literature, we gain new insights into cosmopolitanism, using the individual as a unit of analysis. We introduce an Input-Agency-Output (IAO) model to explain cosmopolitans and their differences from other cross-cultural individuals, such as multiculturals, transnationals, expatriates, migrants. Findings suggest that unlike other cohorts, cosmopolitans possess a unique way of life. They are ambassadors of emancipation. They exert their agency power, turning their exposure to other socio-cultural schemata into the development of kaleidoscopic frames of reference through which they view the world, others and themselves. While they feel at ease negotiating differences, they do not subscribe to any particular socio-cultures. The saying, ‘a rolling stone gathers no moss’, may aptly characterize these individuals. Our paper invites scholars to rethink cosmopolitans, distinguishing them from other cohorts of cross-cultural individuals, particularly multicultural ones. We propose several ideas to advance future international human research management (IHRM) research on cosmopolitans.