Prelims

Half Title Page

GENES, CLIMATE, AND CONSUMPTION CULTURE

Connecting the Dots

Title Page

GENES, CLIMATE, AND CONSUMPTION CULTURE

Connecting the Dots

BY

JAGDISH N. SHETH

Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

with

JOHN YOW

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2017

Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78743-412-7 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78743-411-0 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78743-464-6 (Epub)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my writer, John Yow,

who is a brilliant storyteller and an outstanding journalist.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank several individuals who helped me in writing, editing, and formatting this manuscript.

The first and foremost is John Yow. He is a brilliant writer and researcher. I had the privilege to collaborate with John Yow on several books including Self Destructive Habits of Good Companies, Chindia Rising, and my autobiography, The Accidental Scholar. Without his support, the idea that climate influences both culture and consumption would not have materialized into this book.

I also want to thank Isha Edwards who edited as well as formatted the manuscript. She was also very helpful in getting the permissions.

My thanks go to Devna Thapliyal for her editorial help in revising and rewriting parts of the manuscript and I want to thank my research assistant, Jay Krishnaswamy, for providing library support.

I also want to thank my personal assistant, Nicole Smith (who is herself an excellent writer) for shaping the chapters.

My thanks also go to Jeanne Levine, who signed me up with Emerald.

Preface

My interest in climate and its influence on consumption goes back to my first year college class on economic geography. The year was 1955. It was further reinforced when I specialized in European History with a specific focus on colonial expansion during my first two years of college (1955–1957).

However, all of this came into focus when I did research for Coca Cola International on why some nations consume a lot of Coca Cola and others do not. Ultimately, through statistical analysis, I concluded that all types of consumption can be explained by the North–South Latitude differences in climate ranging from the arctic to temperate to tropical.

What I learned from the Coca Cola study has been further validated by consumption differences in cheese, shoes, garments, and homes. In other words, differences in consumption of all three basic necessities of food, shelter, and clothing can be explained by the North–South climate differences.

More recently, I began to wonder whether cultural differences among nations about punctuality, territorialism, individualism, friendship, social distance, and uncertainty avoidance can also be explained by the latitude link. In other words, I could explain why Northern Europeans are generally more time and space conscious and why they believe in individualism, innovation, and pro-change.

It has been a fascinating journey for me since the early seventies and what I learned in my economic geography and modern history classes. The journey has not stopped.

I am now intrigued whether digital technology and social media will counterbalance influence of climate on culture and consumption or will it be moderated by climate. In other words, will warmer climate cultures be more engaged in social media than the colder climates? Will they have more family and friends on their social media apps such as Facebook, What’s App, and Instagram as compared to colder climate cultures? Nobody knows for sure.