KOREASCHOLAR

Colombia is an emerging country that has institutional stability and perspectives of fast economic growth. Indeed, despite decades of internal conflict and drug related security challenges, Colombia maintains relatively strong democratic institutions characterized by peaceful, transparent elections and the protection of civil liberties (CIA World Factbook, 2014). Today, Colombia is Latin America’s fourth largest economy. Most importantly, the country is witnessing the benefits of governmental and economic stability, as evidenced by its commodity markets, strong macroeconomic policies, and improved security and infrastructure conditions. The bottom line is that Colombia has been witnessing strong economic performance since the early 2000s (OECD, 2013), and now its citizens are reaping the benefit of being new middle-class and upper-class members. A remarkable characteristic of emerging countries is the increase in the size and the economic power of their middle-class population (Bridsal, 2010). The middle-class is an ambiguous social classification, which reflects the ability of a group of citizens within a country to lead a comfortable life. These comforts include, stable housing, access to quality healthcare, educational opportunities, job security, and discretionary income that can be spent on vacation and other leisure pursuits (Kharas, 2010; p.7). As country’s become increasingly wealthier in term of gross national output, the country’s middle-class typically witnesses corresponding increases in income levels and more available cash to use for marketplace consumption. Indeed, in terms of Colombia, its middle-class represents approximately 26% of total consumption (Ferreiro et al., 2013; Bridsal, 2010; p.11). Perhaps, one of the common characteristics across all global middle-class populations is their unique affinity for mall shopping compared to the lower-class and upper-class populations (Jafferlot & van den Veer, 2008; Conroy, 1998). That is, middle- class consumers show strong preferences for visiting and patronizing modern department stores and shopping malls (Mathur, 2010). Indeed, shopping malls are important for newly minted middle-class populations because it signals to them they have reached a higher status and possess disposable income for engaging in shopping, luxury consumption, and entertainment activities (Banerjee & Duflo, 2008). Given Colombia’s economic growth and its newly created middle-class population, understanding consumption patterns among this group is well-warranted, especially given Colombia’s emerging nation status. Thus, the goal of this presentation is to introduce the global community to the growing and affluent Colombian middle-class consumers. We achieve this goal by exploring the types of mall shoppers that currently exist in Colombia and by exploring how consumption patterns differ between and among different demographic consumer segments. Interestingly, one of the primary findings that emerge from this research is that the Colombian middle-class consumer exhibits essentially the same consumption pattern as any other consumer in an industrialized nation. That is, the typical middle-class consumer is a female housewife who enjoys shopping as a leisure activity. In the following section, we discuss a brief review of the literature and then discuss our research methodology and findings. We conclude this extended abstract with a discussion of managerial and theoretical implications and research limitations.

• Mauricio Losada Otalora(Externado University)
• Germán Contreras Ramírez(Externado University)
• Mark S. Rosenbaum(Northern Illinois University)