Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres Globalization, national identity, biculturalism and consumer behavior: A longitudinal study of Dutch consumers ☆,☆☆ Kamila Sobol a , Mark Cleveland b,⁎ , Michel Laroche c a John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, 1450 Guy Street, S-MB-013-241, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3H 0A1 b DAN Management and Organizational Studies, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Street, Social Science Centre, Room 4315, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C2 c John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, 1450 Guy Street, MB-013-237, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3H 0A1 ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Acculturation Global Consumer Culture Ethnic Identity Globalization Consumer Behavior The Netherlands ABSTRACT Evidence for the presence of the global consumer culture (GCC) is substantial. The present paper contributes to this body of research by providing a longitudinal perspective emphasizing the presence, antecedents, and consequences of the GCC within the Netherlands, examining how the interplay between the local and global cultures evolves. While we found evidence that the Dutch are increasingly acculturating to the GCC, the global and local cultural forces seem to impact consumption behaviors consistently over time: NEID positively as- sociates with the consumption of products traditionally bounded to local culture (e.g. local food and clothing), whereas the positive role of AGCC figures prominently with behaviors bound by global or foreign cultural conventions (e.g. electronics and luxuries). The expanded nomological network considers the relationships of AGCC and NEID to various demographic/cultural precursors and dispositional outcomes. 1. Introduction Culture is crucial to consider when developing a marketing strategy. Cultural values, and the extent to which people adhere to values, pro- foundly influence how consumers evaluate and respond to marketing efforts (Alden, Steenkamp, & Batra, 1999; Viswanathan & Dickson, 2007; Westjohn, Singh, & Magnusson, 2012). The diffusion of products and technology enabling social communications, the widespread mi- gration of peoples across borders, and moreover, the global stretch of media coupled with the multinational marketing activities, are un- deniably impacting cultures and consumers worldwide (Alden, Steenkamp, & Batra, 2006; Arnett, 2002). Expressed as the “crystal- lization of the world as a single place” (Robertson, 1987, p. 38), glo- balization portrays an increasingly economically, socially and culturally interdependent world. The ensuing cultural shifts are rapidly trans- forming societies, and proving to be a critical challenge for con- temporary marketing managers. For decades, marketing practitioners have grappled with determining the optimal level of marketing stan- dardization when dealing with the world market, whether it be foreign or domestic. Just how, where and when globalization affects behavior has spawned intense debate. The perspective portrayed in the popular press—that global integration hastens the worldwide convergence of cultures and consequent consumer behaviors—is shared by several academicians (Levitt, 1983; Wilk, 1998). Countermanding this homo- genizing trend, some evidence points to a resurgence of communal identities and behavioral distinctions in response to globalization (Briley & Aaker, 2006). A third outcome suggests increasing homo- geneity and heterogeneity occurring simultaneously, as global and local cultural entities combine to “fuel a hybridization of social life” (Ger, 1999, p. 65; Sobh, Belk, & Gressel, 2014). Whichever the aftermath, globalization and localization are inseparably linked (Askegaard, Arnould, & Kjeldgaard, 2005) and researchers must recognize the con- sequences arising from the interplay of global and local cultural forces on the lives of consumers (Merz, He, & Alden, 2008). Despite the ob- vious importance to marketers, empirical research on this topic is quite scarce, and save for a few very recent studies (Carpenter, Moore, Alexander, & Doherty, 2013; Cleveland, Laroche, & Hallab, 2013; Cleveland, Rojas-Méndez, Laroche, & Papadopoulos, 2016; Lysonski, 2014), most research on global consumer culture (hereafter, GCC) has http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.044 Received 1 April 2015; Accepted 1 February 2016 ☆ Kamila Sobol is Assistant Professor of Marketing John Molson School of Business, Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). Mark Cleveland is Dancap Private Equity Professor of Consumer Behavior, DAN Management and Organizational Studies, University of Western Ontario (London, Canada). Michel Laroche is Royal Bank Distinguished Professor of Marketing, John Molson School of Business, Concordia University (Montreal, Canada). ☆☆ Note: A full list of measures is available upon request from the authors. ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: kamila.sobol@concordia.ca (K. Sobol), mclevela@uwo.ca (M. Cleveland), Michel.laroche@concordia.ca (M. Laroche). Journal of Business Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0148-2963/ © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Sobol, K., Journal of Business Research (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.044