A Cultural Constructivist Analysis of the Internet's Role in the International Approximation of Markets

Abstract

This research theoretically introduces and discusses a macrocultural research question: the likely cultural rapprochement of markets as a consequence of the en masse use of the Internet worldwide. Such a general issue is not only interesting to the (international) marketing discipline but also, due to its interdisciplinary viewpoint, to other areas such as sociology and social psychology. In addition, more particular, microlevel implications in the consumer identity and consumption culture, as well as in companies' global positioning, are also undertaken. To enable this, an integrative conceptual model was built, with diverse elements, which is articulated through a set of propositions. An ad hoc exploratory qualitative study was also developed, whose main outcomes are used to complement the theoretical analyses in this paper. The analysis and projections are based on the prism adopted by recent constructivist approaches to the study of culture, such as the dynamic constructivist approach and the social constructivist theory. These are characterized by their dynamic view of culture.