Application of the Ethnoconsumerism Paradigm to the International Advertising Debate for Russia and the Newly Independent States: A Matter of Convergence?

Abstract

It is postulated that ethnoconsumerism is a useful tool for determining the existential underpinnings to consumer decision making within a given culture and is most valuable when applied to emerging markets. The deeper understanding of consumers provided by this approach supports adaptation of international advertising in Russia and the NIS, and other markets of low convergence. The implications of this paper’s findings is that future research should be directed towards ascertaining the determinants of convergence and their relative weighting’s, because the degree of convergence is a key factor in the international advertising debate. This may enable the rate of change of the degree of convergence for societies in transition to be measured. There would also appear to be future opportunities for theoretical development to be carried out on the characteristics (e.g. slope, shape, and linearity) of the proposed convergence curve itself.