THE ROLE OF CONSUMER AGENCY IN THE GLOBALIZATION PROCESS

IN EMERGING MARKETS

AUTHORS:

P.S. SUMATHI,

M.PHIL RESEARCH SCHOLAR,

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES,

PERIYAR UNIVERSITY,

SALEM-11,

Phone no: 9944230166.

R.DEVI,

M.PHIL RESEARCH SCHOLAR,

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES,

PERIYAR UNIVERSITY,

SALEM-11,

Phone no: 9585930220.

 ABSTRACT

THE ROLE OF CONSUMER AGENCY IN THE GLOBALIZATION PROCESS

IN EMERGING MARKETS

The role of consumer agency in the globalization process is a contested one

within the academy. By analyzing the acceptance and rejection of foreign influences in
India we demonstrate some of the ways in which consumers actively negotiate
globalization. Our analysis suggests a framework for understanding when consumers
will reject offerings, transform meanings of foreign offerings to make them local, or
accept offerings as something foreign.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of consumers’ role and

their relationship to the marketization process and the variables involved in their
choosing to accept, transform or reject foreign product offerings. We explore these
issues in the context of the Indian consumer.

Friedman (1999) defines healthy globalization as “….the ability of a culture,

when it encounters other strong cultures, to absorb influences that naturally fit into and
can enrich the culture, to resist those things that are truly alien, and to compartmentalize
those things that, while different, can nevertheless be enjoyed and celebrated as different”
(p. 236). Globalization, then, seems to be the art of attaining a fine balance of
assimilating foreign influences into a society that add to its diversity without
overwhelming it. The aim of this paper is to examine the premise that the Indian
consumer participates actively in the above process. In order to do this, historical and
modern analyses of consumption are undertaken to demonstrate how goods that are alien
to the culture have either been chosen and integrated in a manner so that they fit in, in
part because of their adaptability, or are discarded when these goods are seen as
threatening to the core aspects of the prevailing culture.

India, an ancient civilization, has existed for more than 4,000 years and over this
time has held immense appeal to invaders and explorers alike. From the ancient Aryans,
the Greeks, the Persians (the Mughals), to the most recent British, India (primarily North
India) has had a multitude of cultures invade and make her their home in different periods
of time (Basham 1983). This colonial past is what is being referred to when Indians talk
about survival. The discourse of survival that is so embedded in the Indian psyche is
being restated again when considering the onslaught of yet another invasion – that of
globalization.