Globalization and Development: An Expanded Macromarketing View

Abstract

Macromarketing has expanded inquiry regarding globalization and development since its inception. It has included quality of life (QOL) and environmental measures, and argued that economic development should improve these variables. This article argues that an expanded view of development should also consider QOL, environment, and substantive freedoms as inputs to the development process because of the nature of the globalization process characterized as the spread of Western capitalist neoliberalism. Current global capitalism is an inadequate approach to development because of its focus on economic market relations. The relation among globalization, development, and neoliberalism is examined, showing that the process has economic, political, cultural, and environmental implications that must be addressed from a macromarketing perspective. The development process is unstable and can be problematic if a single model, neoliberalism, is applied to all lesser developed countries. As Russia's experience suggests, development approaches that ignore nation-specific factors are likely to be problematic.

How materialism affects environmental beliefs, concern, and environmentally responsible behavior

“…Solutions to current waste disposal requirements, for example, cannot keep pace with the profligate materialistic lifestyle of industrial societies. Stiglitz (2002) and Kilbourne (2004) argue that the globalization process is accelerating the spread of free market liberalism that proffers materialism as the solution to the environmental problem, and, as a result, environmental degradation is continuously accelerating through the consequent increase in trade related economic growth (Lofdahl, 2002). Because of this, a more thorough examination of materialism and its role in environmental decline is necessary.…”

The Role of the Dominant Social Paradigm in the Quality of Life/Environmental Interface

“…Drawing from Sen (1993Sen ( , 1999, it was argued here that an expanded definition was required which considered substantive freedoms and agency to be the drivers of QOL, and that market development to enhance material well-being was a secondary factor subject to diminishing marginal utility. Freedom and agency are necessary conditions for effective market development, not outcomes from it as is frequently suggested (Kilbourne, 2004).…”

Linking Subsistence Activities to Global Marketing Systems

“…Much more recently, development issues and the role of institutions also figured prominently in the future challenges in macromarketing as identified by Layton and Grossbart (2006) in their overview article. In his expanded macromarketing view on globalization and development, Kilbourne (2004) emphasized the importance of reckoning with the diversity of institutional structures in developing countries. And Layton (2009) noted marketing systems as "third significant set of factors" in considering economic growth, "in addition to favorable institutions and knowledge accumulation".…”