An Examination of the Relationships Between Ethnicity, Acculturation, and Attitudes to Places and their Products

Ethnic consumers' "dual allegiance" to their ethnic affiliation and residence countries raises unique research opportunities to examine the role of ethnicity and acculturation in product and place buyer behaviour in the context of research on product country image and place constructs. This study examines ethnic consumers' place and product evaluations in a complex framework that combines multiple cultural, social, and marketing concepts. This research centres on the idea that ethnic individuals who decide to migrate from their country of origin to host countries, or who are born in a host country to immigrant parents, are affiliated with two places that may or may not be aligned economically, politically, or culturally. Therefore, ethnic individuals could possibly be tagged in two directions depending on their ethnicity and acculturative tendency. The principal compelling element in this study, which comprises its main intended contribution, is consumers’ identification with the notions of “home” and “host” countries in an ethnic context, and the forces that influence their relationship with places and their offerings. The main proposition of the research is, therefore, set to systematically investigate the extent to which consumers’ ethnic strength with their country of origin, and the degree of their acculturation to the host culture, both influence their evaluations and willingness to buy products that originate from countries that are expected to be viewed negatively or positively by them.