Global Versus Local Consumer Culture Steenkamp, Jan-Benedict E.M.
Journal of international marketing (East Lansing, Mich.),
03/2019, Volume:
27, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The last few decades have seen the emergence of global consumer culture (GCC) as an important force in the marketplace. Yet, in recent years, powerful political and economic forces suggest that ...globalization might be stalling, leading to renewed interest in local consumer culture (LCC). This article provides an overview of where the field of international marketing stands on GCC and LCC, and it presents new empirical insights. It elaborates on the roots of GCC and LCC in consumer culture theory, cultural globalization theory, and acculturation theory. This background information sets the context for an in-depth discussion of how international marketers have operationalized consumer attitudes toward GCC and LCC, and their individual-level and national-cultural correlates. The article addresses behavioral and managerial consequences of GCC and LCC and concludes with areas for future research.
The study concerns the development of compensative and compulsive buying in Poland comparing the results of three waves of a cross-sectional study conducted before and at the end of the COVID-19 ...pandemic. Six predictors of susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying are in focus: materialism, self-esteem, gender, age, frequency of online shopping, and experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the importance of the first four predictors in explaining compensative and compulsive buying is already very well described in the literature, while the novelty consists in the predictive model including the variables that describe frequency of online shopping and negative experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as coronavirus infection, hospitalization or death of a loved one. On the one hand, a stronger susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying could be a reaction to these negative experiences of the pandemic; on the other hand, the increased frequency of online shopping as a result of the pandemic may be an important factor in the development of compensative and compulsive buying due to the easy implementation of purchase acts and weaker social control. To achieve the above research objectives, the German Compulsive Buying Indicator (GCBI) was used to measure susceptibility to compensative and compulsive buying. The data were obtained within three waves of the study (2010, 2019, 2022) based on a random sample of about 1,000 respondents representing statistically the general adult population. Drawing on this study, the prevalence of compensative and compulsive buying is observed at 12-19% and 2-4%. The predictors of GCBI are materialism, self-esteem, gender in all examined models and additionally age, frequency of online shopping, and experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in selected models. Although the findings related to the role of materialism, self-esteem, and gender in the prediction of GCBI reflect the results reported in the literature, the analogous conclusions about age, online shopping, and experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic are different from the established opinions. The commonly reported effect of age becomes statistically significant when the examined population is limited to Gens Y and Z. Although extensive online shopping co-exists with compensative and compulsive buying in the total population, the obtained data lead to reverse conclusions in the case of women's subpopulation representing Gens Y and Z. The negative experience with the COVID-19 pandemic operationalised as hospitalization of a close friend predicts GCBI, but again only in the case of representatives of Gens Y and Z, especially among women. The findings show how important the creation of appropriate intervention strategies is within the consumer policy directed to representatives of the younger generations who may develop pathological buying as a response to negative experiences such as COVID-19 pandemic. The findings can inform of the goals behind therapeutic support for compulsive buyers, and implications for social work. People affected by excessive compensative or compulsive buying need to be given opportunities to build up their strengths and growth of their psychological resources towards healthy self-esteem, which seems to be the best protection against excessive compensative and compulsive buying.
Evidence for the presence of the global consumer culture (GCC) is substantial. The present paper contributes to this body of research by providing a longitudinal perspective emphasizing the presence, ...antecedents, and consequences of the GCC within the Netherlands, examining how the interplay between the local and global cultures evolves. While we found evidence that the Dutch are increasingly acculturating to the GCC, the global and local cultural forces seem to impact consumption behaviors consistently over time: NEID positively associates with the consumption of products traditionally bounded to local culture (e.g. local food and clothing), whereas the positive role of AGCC figures prominently with behaviors bound by global or foreign cultural conventions (e.g. electronics and luxuries). The expanded nomological network considers the relationships of AGCC and NEID to various demographic/cultural precursors and dispositional outcomes.
COVID-19 has affected everyone's daily lives. At least 316 million people in 42 states have been asked to stay at home to slow down the pandemic. In this aspect, businesses have been susceptible to ...make substantial transformations. Workplace operations of many businesses went virtual. The effect of the digital transformation on productivity and corporate culture has been studied extensively. Meanwhile, how COVID-19 has influenced consumers and the consumption culture has received relatively limited attention. Managers often take a wait-and-see approach on the impact of COVID-19 on sales. It is often uncertain whether and how many customers will return after the pandemic passes. Consumers live through the pandemic, and some changes might be long-lasting even after the situation eases. We examine the pandemic as an accelerator of the structural change in consumption and the digital transformation in the marketplace. Managers might adapt to the digital transformation in the market to recover or even grow further the sales after COVID-19.
•This study evaluates the role of acculturation patterns in shaping prestige perception of masstige brands.•Assimilation, integration, and marginalization acculturation patterns perceived RayBan ...Sunglass as a masstige brand.•Separation acculturation pattern do not perceive RayBan as a masstige brand.•Study advances the implications of consumer culture theory (CCT) in mass-prestige brands consumption.
The increase in disposable income and the luxury aspirations of the middle-class have led to the introduction of a new genre of luxury, known as masstige luxury. The extant research has yet to investigate the role of acculturation - changes in an individual’s thoughts and behavior that result from (in)direct exposure to culturally dissimilar individuals or groups - in shaping the masstige perception of a brand. The current study addresses this gap by examining how various acculturation patterns (i.e., integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization) assess the mass-prestige quotient of fashion accessory brands (sunglasses). The study identifies RayBan as a masstige brand in the sunglasses category and observes that the assimilation acculturation group assigned RayBan the highest masstige score, followed by the integration, marginalization, and separation groups. Furthermore, cultural worldview is identified as the underlying mechanism for differences in the masstige scores across various acculturation groups. By explaining the cultural consequences of masstige-based brand consumption, this study contributes to the growing masstige academic literature.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a different perspective on the global consumer culture (GCC) phenomenon and identify new avenues for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
The ...paper is a thought piece.
Findings
The unprecedented globalization of the marketplace in the last 50 years has given rise to the emergence of GCC, and the rise of global companies and global brands, among others. Yet, as one surveys the globalscape, there are developments on the horizon that might threaten continued globalization. In this paper, the author discusses these developments and their implications around three interrelated, yet distinct, components of globalization: global integration of world economies, GCC and global brands.
Originality/value
The paper identifies unique research opportunities to study GCC in an emerging business context in which continued global integration is not guaranteed, and where globalization headwinds could reduce the contribution of perceived brand globalness to brand value.
This paper reports on an exploratory interpretivist study of global millennial consumers' subjective interpretations of ethnic targeted marketing communications in a multicultural marketplace. ...Although millennials are the most ethnically diverse generational cohort that has ever existed, little is known about their interpretation of ethnicity depiction in advertising and how they draw from advertising imagery to infer their ethnic identity, social acceptance and inclusion in a culturally diverse society. Within the broader context of the global consumer culture, this paper draws on theories of social identity, persuasion and multiculturalism to investigate whether ethnic marketing is still applicable to reach the diverse millennial consumers. In-depth interviews with the photo elicitation technique were conducted with an ethnically heterogeneous sample of twenty-three millennial individuals in the UK. The findings show that ethnic millennials' multicultural identities cannot be primed through mono-ethnic targeted messages, whereas multi-ethnic embedded marketing communications provide a more effective access for the ethnically diverse millennial consumers in the modern society and can potentially be a viable solution towards enhanced wellbeing and lower prejudice. This study contributes to insights into millennial consumers' experience in the multicultural marketplace, the sociocultural meanings of ethnic advertising and the opportunities and challenges of reaching to this diverse audience.
Much scientific evidence has been found about positive effects of lowering meat consumption on the environment, human health and animal welfare. Nevertheless, particularly in developing economies ...demand for meat is rising whereas in high-income countries meat intake remains at high levels. Although many of today's Western consumers are unwilling to cut their meat consumption, it appears that a fraction is receptive to limit meat consumption by abstaining from eating meat occasionally. This is called flexitarianism. A great deal of hope has been placed lately on a flexitarian diet to help solving food-related environmental sustainability and human health problems. To determine whether flexitarianism can meet such high hopes, it is – to begin with – important to get an idea about the extent of contemporary food consumers' shift towards more meat-restricted diets. Such an overview has so far been lacking.
This study collected recent consumer research on meat eaters and meat reducers conducted in various affluent countries to explore the state of play in the field of flexitarianism.
The present work demonstrates that multiple studies point to the existence of a group of flexitarians that is distinct from consumers who are deeply attached to meat eating and have no intention whatsoever to limit their meat intake, let alone are already changing meat-eating behaviours. Flexitarians not only differ from meat lovers but they also differ from each other. Against the backdrop of numerous devoted meat eaters, and flexitarians who frequently reduce their meat consumption only slightly, the question is raised whether flexitarianism is enough to tackle the pressing environmental and human health problems.
•Many of today's Western consumers are unwilling to cut their meat consumption.•Flexitarians are receptive to limit meat consumption by abstaining from eating meat occasionally.•Flexitarians exist as a distinct consumer group in various Western countries.•Flexitarians not only differ from meat lovers but they also differ from each other.•Many flexitarians only mildly reduce their meat intake.
•Immigrant and native consumers experience a process of consumer multiculturation.•Dynamic interactions among multiple cultural elements in multicultural marketplaces.•Active role of immigrant ...consumers in intercultural meaning-making processes.•Creolisation cooking practices as contextually contingent expression of agency.•Clarifying practices problematise cultural meanings of globalised food brands.
This study examines the consumer multiculturation of Mexican immigrants in the context of their food consumption practices in the UK multicultural marketplace. Adopting a qualitative methodology involving interviews and participant observation allows participants to share their responses to global consumer culture constructions that equate Tex-Mex with ‘authentic’ Mexican food culture. Focusing on situated, dynamic interactions among multiple cultural elements – consumers, brands, marketing ideology - within multicultural marketplaces our research contributes to the theoretical development of consumer multiculturation by: (1) broadening the concept to embrace the intercultural dynamics of production (specifically crafting); (2) conceptualising creolisation cooking practices as a contextually contingent creative, productive and tangible means through which immigrant consumers exercise agency during consumer multiculturation; and (3) identifying clarifying practices that translate immigrant consumers’ home food culture for others, simultaneously problematising the cultural meanings of globalised foreign/ethnic food brands. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications for cultural branding strategy.
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