Building competitiveness through globalization: The impact of consumption convergence

Abstract

Being a consumer is a learned behavior. As much as consumption patterns are transferred through the process of socialization, especially at younger age, through the dominant influence of the nuclear family, differences in consumer culture are apparent. Attitudes, values and preferences change in early adulthood, stressing the intergenerational gap. We aim to investigate the differences in consumption patterns between members of the same family that belong to different generations, specifically parents-children. We will access their preferences towards different groups of products, with the intention of stressing the impact of democratization of information access and globalization as a vehicle of market integrations. The research will cover the product/service groups identified by literature as “cultural product categories”. The impact of globalization will be measured by implementing basic tests of differences on two generational cohorts, searching for preferences towards global versus local products. We will investigate, more closely, the presence of consumer ethnocentrism in different economical conditions (developed vs. developing economy) and between different generations (parents vs. children). Research will be conducted in Serbia and Austria, aiming to discover the behavioral patterns in consumption and their change. Managerial implications are related to creating marketing strategies that respond the best to consumer preferences in different industries, age groups or geographies, especially uncovering consumption convergence, that can exploit economies of scales in production and/or marketing. Interestingly, debate about existence of global culture does not lose its significance and the opinions are polarized regarding the processes that shape the contemporary societies and markets.

Keywords

• globalization
• consumer behavior
• consumption patterns
• ethnocentrism
• convergence