Impact of Globalization on Shopping and Consumption - Coursework Example

IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION SHOPPING AND CONSUMPTION (Student’s Name) (Course) (Instructor) (Institution) (Date) In the broadest sense, globalization is a process by which all communities and people come to experience the increasing ranges of cultural, political, and economic activities across the world landscape. By definition, it is evident that the process affects nearly everybody across the globe in various ways. This paper, however, aims to discuss the impact of globalization on daily life with regards to how people shop and eat today. The effects of globalization on the quality of life are, therefore, mixed, but its impact is undeniable. The fact that it is possible for countries to trade freely with each other creates an abundance of services and products that can be offered to consumers. Most of these services and products would have been unimaginable without the current international unions and many free trade agreements (Gaur 2015). This statement makes a practical suggestion that globalization not only enhanced business penetration and shopping across the international borders, but it also promotes the consumer’s ability to purchase life-changing goods across all platforms. This can be attributed the existence of flexibility allowing consumers to have many consumption alternatives at reasonable prices creating a slew of expectations for forward movement. Similarly, it is important to recognize that as a result of globalization, consumers can experience the dynamic nature of the international business which in turn shapes their shopping patterns. Ignoring the locally produced goods for high-quality products imported from other countries is a common practice in many states (Sangkil et al. 2016). Consumers often believe that shopping from international platforms is more quality assuring than local purchases. However, the ability to make such purchases always depends on one’s technical ability, global market curiosity, communications and sustainability. All these factors coupled with technological advancement creates a global village in which people share and experience different cultures, ideas, foodstuffs, lifestyles, and social relations that influence their decisions to buy products. Most consumers buy products such as clothing, foodstuffs, and electronics because they have seen others buy them. This is known as cultural globalization, an important factor facilitating shopping while influencing the eating styles and diet. Hu (2008) examines how globalization has rapidly changed eating styles around the world. Currently, most people tend to adopt the western diet composed of light but sequential meals. The ironic nature of cultural globalization is, however, fascinating. It does universalize and individualize cultural practices at the same and the extent to which the process actively enhances the consumption of varied cultures not only intrigues the sociologists but also the world entrepreneurs. Local consumers, for instance, prefer reusing global commodities and resources to making local purchases because of the feeling that global products are widely accepted, hence, are associated with quality and effectiveness. Further, re-appropriation of media products in the current markets also points to the impact of globalization on people’s daily lives. For instance, the youths who subscribe to global media products interpret the information in a way that can give them meaning in the local context. Therefore, globalization provides media product vendors with an opportunity to customize their products to specific market segments, thus, improving convenience of consumers’ shopping effort. Customers use the current technological advancements to reach out to the world through the Internet for ordering and purchasing goods and services online. Companies on the other hands use technology to acquire raw materials and products from distant regions and to sell their output abroad (Grochal-Brejdak 2016). This is what is known as e-commerce or e-business. Much has been discussed on the suffrage of media globalization in the hands of under-conceptualized and overly optimistic explorations as well as whether international communication can facilitate cross-border shopping (Hafez & Skinner 2007). As much as one can agree with this statement, an in-depth consideration of what global media technology would mean to the status of the global business is necessary. The emerging trends in the transnational businesses have pinned a lot of hope on the individuals in various countries as the poster child of the globalization. Brecher and Costello (2008) keenly observe that the increased mobility of some of the western scholars makes them overestimate the capability of the transnational businesses. One of the core phenomena of the globalization is the cross-border communication. The international communication is a fundamental element of the global village. Even though globalization as a process has never managed to achieve true platform for businesses and dialogs across borders, the blend of digital divides, linguistics, and persistent regional preferences have interlocked to ensure shopping is exclusively a process international exchange. There have been recent develop trade blocks such as World Trade Organization that have for long been used to foster togetherness, freedom of commerce, uniformity of production and penetration of international borders. Internationalism, which is a significant aspect of the prospected globalism, has, however, faced ranges of criticism from national antagonists for years. It has not reached the global level to enable people to speak freely without the feeling of ethnocentrism. Based on the concept of transmitting and receiving, a little variation in the global system regarding cultures and localities can be spotted. In a way, cultures seem to be somewhat fixed and resistant to the full realization of the village factor in the global system. In the struggle globalization between the external and internal cultural impacts, domestic practices outpace the conversion and other cultural changes as the individuals’ term the changes as modernization rather than globalization. Maybe to make the whole process is workable, cultural practices needs to transmit through as a whole slice of the host culture. Conversely, people can develop a new unitary global culture to facilitate their coexistence in the global village and collective experience in fashion and designing. In further discussion of the impact of globalization factor in the world system, one may ask whether people in a particular country still cling to their products alone or whether entrepreneurs in most of the countries still solely adhere to their nationals’ interest. Well, the fact is that they do, but the idea of globalization has led to a lot borrowing and application of standards, codes and significant qualities from other countries. At the level of globalizing scholars, some significant changes in the norms can be seen. These convergent changes may be regarded in the geographical spaces and communication networks of various countries (Brecher& Costello 2008). Many research perspectives have currently been developed to scrutinize the trade systems and cultural practices in international business while creating analogy among various nations. Due to globalization, consumerism as a way of life becomes so promising. Whether in one is living in the rural or urban area, global consumption as a culture offers something unique for every consumer. Most important is an opportunity to feel the sense of belonging. Failure to consume or shop, meanwhile, is associated with lack of control, implying a form of exclusion that preserves withdrawal and poverty. Globalization, therefore, heightens consumer expectations that in most cases cannot be satisfied, and the result is frustration, alienation, relative deprivation and, possibly, crime and social strife (Kraemer, Gibbs & Dedrick 2005). The challenge, especially in the third world countries, is that pictures of consumerism are paints everywhere, but many people have to be content with the anticipation of what could be, since the advertised lifestyles and items are not often accessible, particularly to the low-income members of society. In summary, an increasingly integrated world community results in both problems and benefits for all. This is because it influences the balance of political, economic and cultural power among nations, individuals, and communities and as such, it improves limits for international business and exchange. References Brecher, J., and Costello, T., 2008. Global village or global pillage: Economic rebuilding from the bottom up. South End Press. Gaur, A 2015, 'Impact of Globalization on Trade and Employment', International Journal of Multidisciplinary Approach & Studies, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 110-113 Grochal-Brejdak, M. (2016).Methodology of Research on Internationalisation Process of E-Commerce Enterprises. Management (18544223), 11(1), 51-66. Hafez, K. and Skinner, A., 2007. The myth of media globalization.Polity. Hu, F. B. (2008). Globalization of food patterns and cardiovascular disease risk. Circulation, 118(19), 1913-1914. Kraemer, K. L., Gibbs, J., &Dedrick, J. (2005). Impacts of Globalization on E-Commerce Use and Firm Performance: A Cross-Country Investigation. Information Society, 21(5), 323-340. doi:10.1080/01972240500253350 Sangkil, M., Mishra, A., Mishra, H., & Moon Young, K. (2016). Cultural and Economic Impacts on Global Cultural Products: Evidence from U.S. Movies. Journal Of International Marketing, 24(3), 78-97. doi:10.1509/jim.15.0080 Read More