Understanding acculturation of consumer culture in an emerging market: An analysis of urban, educated, middle‐class Indian consumers

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the extent of behavioral acculturation of consumer culture (B‐ACC) and attitudinal acculturation of consumer culture (A‐ACC) among the urban, educated, middle class Indian consumers. It also aims to test if B‐ACC and A‐ACC among various demographic segments of Indian consumers differ on the basis of their ownership/usage of foreign brands vis‐à‐vis Indian brands.

Design/methodology/approach

An empirical study has been conducted to address the above mentioned objectives. Data have been collected from urban, educated, middle class Indian consumers using structured questionnaire and following snowball and judgment sampling methods. Data analysis has been done using ANOVA and T‐test.

Findings

The results show that highly educated Indian consumers who fall under the age group of 16‐25 years and belong to upper‐middle class show greater levels of B‐ACC as well as A‐ACC vis‐à‐vis other demographic segments of Indian consumers. In the total sample as well as among all the demographic segments, it was observed that B‐ACC is significantly higher than A‐ACC. Indian consumers who own/use foreign brands show significantly higher B‐ACC across most of demographic segments.

Practical implications

The research clearly identifies the segment which would be most receptive to the globalized marketing strategies of various multinational corporations.

Originality/value

The paper shows the extent of B‐ACC and A‐ACC among the Indian consumers. It provides empirical support to the contention in the extant literature that B‐ACC would be greater than A‐ACC among consumers in the emerging markets.

Citation

Gupta, N. (2013), "Understanding acculturation of consumer culture in an emerging market: An analysis of urban, educated, middle‐class Indian consumers", International Journal of Emerging Markets, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 24-40. https://doi.org/10.1108/17468801311297264