The global crisis has many dimensions and impacts. Its most visible face is rising food prices, a major challenge to global development and poverty reduction efforts. In the absence of adequate support for agriculture, the world faces the risk of mass hunger in the coming years.
In addition, the economic crisis has a social dimension with increased unemployment and more people leaving their homes in search of work, and greater numbers of women experiencing higher levels of care work at home. These trends are particularly worrying for least developed countries. The crisis also challenges the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero Hunger by 2030, which is not on track to be met.
Global shocks, such as the financial crisis that erupted in September 2008 after the failure of US mortgage company Lehman Brothers and the near-failure of several other large investment firms, are a frequent occurrence. These events have a global impact and trigger panic in global markets. They also generate inter-national political instability and weaken international cooperation.
Despite their widespread impact, the consequences of global crises remain neglected by researchers in business and marketing. In particular, international marketing research has largely ignored them, even though they have important implications for consumer behaviors, crisis communication, and well-being. This article discusses the reasons for this neglect and suggests how to overcome it. It is suggested that scholars should focus on both macro-level and micro-level determinants of the impacts of global crises, namely consumers’ beliefs about how the crisis has been handled and their psychological reactions to it.