Globalization Orientations and Backlashes
(R2020-83417)

AUTHORS

Mark Cleveland, University of Western Ontario; Georgia McCutcheon, University of Western Ontario

KEYWORDS

Globalization; Attitudes; Scale

ABSTRACT

People vary in the degree and manner that they have been affected by globalization. This research details the development of a scale capturing consumers’ backlashes against various aspects of globalization. Building on Appadurai’s (1990) theoretical typology of five global cultural flows—which he labelled as ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, finanscapes, and ideoscapes—we operationalize antiglobalscapes according to trepidations about these transnational exchanges. Using SEM and multigroup analysis, the novel scale is validated with data from consumers in Canada (n=267) and the United States (n=426), and embedded within a nomological net of three orientations regarding cultural ingroups and outgroups: self-identification with global consumer culture, cosmopolitanism, and consumer ethnocentrism. This study offers insights for theory and practice, as well as direction for further inquiries relating to consumers’ backlashes against globalization.