In recent years, consumerism and consumer protection activities, as well as consumer complaint handling issues, have gained a renewed interest in the marketing literature. But, most of the studies in the current marketing literature treat consumerism activity as a phenomenon of developed advanced Western economies. Unfortunately, consumerism and consumer complaint handling issues in developing environments have not been examined adequately in the marketing literature (Thorelli, 1981).
What is needed is for the international business community to become actively involved in consumerism activities.
Comparing consumerism across nations/cultures and the relevant issues on an international basis also deserve increased attention. How do countries with different market systems and different attitudes toward consumerism compare in both the frequency of consumer problems and the effectiveness of informal complaint-handling systems? These questions must clearly be answered if government regulators, consumers, and marketing professionals are to develop effective policies to significantly improve the functioning of market systems from the consumers’ perspectives both within and across national and geopolitical boundaries.
It must be pointed out here that the consumer movement is no longer a North IMnerican and West European phenomenon but one of worldwide dimensions and magnitude which shows no signs of subsiding. It was pointed out that this apparent trend can be attributed to rising standards Journal of Business Ethics 11: 813–829, 1992. В© 1992 KluwerAcademic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 814 Erdener Kaynak, et al. of living, the development and advances in mass media, increased travel, increased technology and its sophistication, and the increased educational level of consumers across nations/cultures (Andereasen, 1977).
Consumerism life-cycle in global markets It is pointed out that consumerism, as in other social movements and developments, follows a typical pattern of evolution. As a result, during the development of consumerism activity, four distinct stages have been identified. These are crystallization, organization, institutionalization, and conceptualization. In this evolutionary development, it is feasible to position the various nations of the world.
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