The Lexus or the Olive Tree? Trading Off Between Global Convergence and Local Divergence

To operate effectively in global markets, marketing managers need to understand that consumer response to globalization may be more complex than is commonly assumed. We examine a proposed conceptual framework to describe consumers' responses to globalization through a cross-national survey on consumer support for a pan-European government policy aimed at countering global convergence by preserving local cultural divergence. We find that consumer support for the policy increases with beliefs about the policy’s efficacy in preserving the authenticity of cultural products and protecting their local economic production structures, while it decreases with beliefs about policy-induced price increases. The national cultural values of individualism and masculinity influence this tradeoff between cultural and economic considerations. These findings are further corroborated by secondary data on 22 EU countries