The Second Edition of this popular text brings up-to-date Marieke de Mooij’s important analysis of the impact of culture on consumer behavior worldwide. The author shows how it is increasingly vital for marketing students—tomorrow’s marketing professionals—to understand the limits of consistent brand identities and universal advertising campaigns. Consumer behavior is not converging across countries, and therefore it is of even greater importance to understand, and be able to respond to, differences in behavior. This edition offers a new chapter, Chapter 7, on culture, communication, and media behavior that extends the prior edition’s discussion on communication theories and advertising styles to cover differences in media usage worldwide, particularly the use of the Internet.

Knowledge is fast becoming a main source of wealth, but it can also be a source of inequalities. This work addresses whether it is possible to hasten the transition towards a knowledge-based economy and enhance competitiveness with increased employment and improved social cohesion across Europe.

This volume analyses some of the major current trends and policy challenges in the 'new economy' from the point of view of technical innovation and competence building. It brings together the leading European expertise on different topics in this field. Together the authors give a picture of the most dramatic new challenges in a world where competition is becoming increasingly knowledge-based and global. Why has the US economy been able to realise a so-called new economy based on the effective exploitation of information technology while Europe still suffers from chronic high rates of unemployment? How is it that contemporary economic systems have become more knowledge-intensive but social inequality, both within and across countries, is increasing? The contributors to this volume share the belief that knowledge is a fundamental component of economic growth and welfare. However, the ways in which knowledge is transmitted and distributed among economic agents requires shaping by public policies. The individual chapters report on the most significant policies adopted and assess them in the light of the European experience in comparison with the United States and Japan.

De Mooij argues that differences in consumer behaviour across countries are not decreasing, but increasing. This book provides empirical evidence that the need to understand culture to explian differences in consumer behaviour is greater than ever.

Michael Kalecki was a Polish economist who independently discovered many of the key concepts of what is now identified as Keynesian theory. His contribution to macroeconomics was late in being acknowledged, but his work can be seen to have resounding influence on some of today's economic problems. The analyses presented in this book serve to scruti