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This paper aims to understand the elements of bridging practices enacted by Asian immigrant consumers and exploring how these practices constitute reverse acculturation within immigrant-receiving Western cultures.

A practice theoretical perspective was deployed in concert with a hermeneutic analysis of two-part depth interviews with 26 Southeast Asian immigrants in New Zealand. Multi-modal methods and open narrative reflexivity were deployed to improve depth and trustworthiness.

Participant narratives revealed three intertwined elements of bridging practices: articulations (involving sayings and meanings), performances (involving embodied social activities and material artefacts) and contestations (involving tensions and anxieties). Bridging practices create shared social spaces and facilitate the intensification of intercultural translation.

Bridging practices provide a partial view of wider “circuits of practice” (Magaudda, 2011) which cumulatively constitute reverse acculturation. Future research is needed to show how bridging practices serve as resources for transforming the consumption practices of local consumers in Western cultures.

This study advances consumer acculturation theory in three ways. First, this study identifies a key practice of intercultural translation between Asian and Western consumer cultures. In particular, this study shows that intercultural translation occurs not only through ethnic economies but also in a diverse range of private and public sites. Second, in addition to local consumers’ practices (Sobh et al., 2012), this study highlights the role of immigrant consumers’ practices in reverse acculturation, thereby providing empirical evidence for Luedicke’s (2011) conceptual model of intercultural adaptation. Third, in addition to the influence of acculturating agents on immigrant consumers (Askegaard et al., 2005; Peñaloza, 1994), this study demonstrates how immigrant consumers themselves can act as acculturating agents.

The consumer acculturation literature argues that reconstituting familiar embodied practices from the culture of origin leads to a comforting sense of home for consumers who move from one cultural context to another. This paper aims to extend this thesis by examining further dimensions in migrant consumers’ experiences of home culture consumption.

This paper analyses data gathered through multi-modal depth interviews with Southeast Asian skilled migrants in New Zealand through the conceptual lens of embodiment.

Building on Dion et al.’s (2011) framework of ethnic embodiment, the analysis uncovers home culture consumption as multi-layered experiences of anchoring, de-stabilisation and estrangement, characterised by convergence and divergence between the embodied dimensions of being-in-the-world, being-in-the-world with others and remembering being-in-the-world.

This paper underscores home culture consumption in migration as an ambivalent embodied experience. Further research should investigate how other types of acculturating consumers experience and negotiate the changing meanings of home.

Marketers in migrant-receiving and migrant-sending cultural contexts should be sensitised to disjunctures in migrants’ embodied experience of consuming home and their role in heightening or mitigating these disjunctures.

This paper helps contribute to consumer acculturation theory in two ways. First, the authors show how migrants experience not only comfort and connection but also displacement, in practices of home culture consumption. Second, the authors show how migrant communities do not only encourage cultural maintenance and gatekeeping but also contribute to cultural identity de-stabilisation.

This paper aims to explore how marketplace-enabled performances help reconstitute masculinity in the context of transnational mobility.

Grounded in consumer acculturation theory, this paper draws on theories of gender performance to inform a hermeneutic analysis of depth interviews with skilled migrant men.

To navigate experiences of emasculation, participants performed three remasculation strategies: status-based hypermasculinity, localised masculinity and flexible masculinity.

This study offers insights for the design of migrant settlement policy. Further research should investigate the remasculation strategies of low resource migrant men.

This paper makes two contributions to theories of gendered acculturation. First, while studies of acculturation as a gendered performance have shown how marketplace resources support the gendered identity projects of female migrants and the children of migrants, this paper provides the missing perspective of skilled migrant men. Beyond acting as “resistant” cultural gatekeepers of their family members’ gendered acculturation practices, first-generation migrant men emerge as creative, agentic and skilled negotiators of countervailing gender regimes. Second, transnationally dispersed families, migrant communities and country of origin networks emerge not only as acculturating agents which transmit gender regimes but also as audiences which enable the staging of remasculating performances.

This study aims to analyze the joint effects of where a service failure occurs and who witnesses it, with a specific focus on Chinese consumers who have varying levels of acculturation.

A 4 × 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design was used, where social presence and the location of the service failure were manipulated and acculturation was measured. Data were collected in Australia and China to contrast perceptions and behavioral responses of Chinese – Australians and Mainland Chinese by drawing on samples of 224 and 264 respondents, respectively.

Results showed significant differences in face, satisfaction and repeat purchase intention ratings following a service failure between Chinese – Australians and Mainland Chinese, as well as among Chinese – Australians with different acculturation strategies. Contrary to expectations, results established that where and with whom a service failure is experienced prominently affect consumer behavior regardless of the acculturation level.

An understanding of the effect of acculturation on a service failure situation is crucial for businesses to successfully compete in a continuously globalized world where migration produces multicultural societies and short-term travel tends to significantly change demands on service provision.

This research presents one of the first studies that go beyond the traditional East/West consumer distinction in studying service failure. This study analyzes the effect of acculturation by itself and together with other variables of interest.

This paper aims to assess recent acculturation theory regarding the existence of two co-existent characteristics, the public and private. This has been focussed on the ethnic Turkish community in The Netherlands.

Considering more than 200 second- and third-generation citizens, the underlying structure of this acculturation using an established two-dimensional public/private metric has been identified using exploratory factor analysis. An assessment has been made of generational differences, alongside associations with the respective assessment of host and ethnic identity.

The findings in the paper suggest that the Turkish acculturation within The Netherlands is based on “Turkish socialisation”, “Islamic faith/religion”, “Dutch socialisation” and “Dutch assimilation”. The “socialisation” constructs capture both public and private experiences, suggesting acculturation is more one-dimensional. Furthermore, these constructs display the greater associations with their respective identity measures, and this ethnic identity is increasing rather than diminishing by generation.

As emerging ethnic markets continue to become more mainstream in Western Europe, their marketing importance also grows. Muslim immigrants are a growing interest of marketers, as they grow in size and purchasing power, and marketers use sub-cultural segmentation and targeted marketing to reach these consumers.

The popularity of e-commerce has increased significantly over recent years. However, this growth is not shared by all European Union states. One reason for this discrepancy is culture which impacts on e-commerce acceptance. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the effect of acculturation process on e-commerce acceptance.

Structural equation modelling is employed to test three research models: technology acceptance model, theory of planned behaviour model and motivational model.

The findings show that attitudes towards e-commerce change in relation to the perception of control and the influence of subjective norms, which impact intentions to use e-commerce before movement to a host country’s culture. However, its effect diminishes after the exposure to the influence of a host culture.

This is the first study to demonstrate the existence of the effect of acculturation process on mingling and migrating consumers and their changing attitudes towards e-commerce acceptance.

Acculturation theory shows how foreign actors have evolved in Japanese television commercials. If advertising mirrors culture, foreign businesses trying to advertise products in Japan need to be aware of societal changes and tailor their messages to the preferences of the local population. This paper aims to address these issues.

Content analysis explores the changing role of foreign female actors in Japanese television advertising for the years 1992 and 2002. Advertisements' setting, roles, appeals, and verbal and nonverbal communications are tested by chi‐square analysis.

Ads from the 2002 data set show increases in both traditional and modern themes in regards to the location of the ads, roles foreign females play, the advertising appeals, and the use of Japanese communication modalities. The findings suggest that advertisers are consciously or unconsciously incorporating cultural assimilation when ads include foreign actors.

Acculturation theory is useful for explaining cultural shifts to develop more effective advertising messages. Differences in portrayals of foreign people in advertising reflect changes in cultural values that appear to be changing more rapidly due to global trade and communication technology innovations.

Recognizing shifts in cultural norms allows marketers to more effectively communicate with target audiences. Advertisers employing foreign actors may find their messages more effective if local cultural assimilation is used.

This paper identifies and examines changes in communication modalities to show foreign actors displaying Japanese mannerisms. The evidence suggests cultural norms evolve sometimes quickly over time. Even advertisers using a localized approach must carefully monitor changes in cultural norms to assure message effectiveness.

Ethnic identity or the retention or loss of the attitudes, values and behaviours of one’s culture of origin is presented as a multidimensional construct. It is further suggested that acculturation or the acquisition of traits of the dominant/host culture constitutes a separate yet correlated process. Initial exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on responses from Italian‐Canadians to various items designed to tap Italian ethnic identity. These analyses revealed that ethnic identity did indeed constitute a multidimensional process. Specifically, three dimensions were identified: Italian Social Interaction and Participation, Italian Language Use with Family Members, and Catholicism. A final CFA model incorporated the three ethnic identity dimensions and two dimensions of acculturation. Consistent with previous findings, LISREL VIII estimation resulted in significant negative correlations between some ethnic identity and acculturation dimensions. The discriminant validity of ethnic identity was also more thoroughly established vis‐à‐vis acculturation by computing 95 per cent confidence intervals for the parameter estimates. Finally, subsequent stepwise regression analyses showed that the three ethnic identity dimensions along with the two acculturation dimensions and three socioeconomic factors had differential impacts on the consumption of various convenience and traditional foods. A hypothesis holding that ethnic identity was negatively related to the consumption of convenience foods was partly confirmed. Another holding that it was positively related to the consumption of traditional Italian foods was better established.

Purpose: This chapter seeks to understand ethnic identification among second-generation consumers by drawing upon the lived experiences of British Indian migrants in England.

Methodology/Approach: The authors analyze interviews with middle-class, Hindu, second-generation British Indian women through Bourdieu’s key concepts of capital, field, habitus, and distinction.

Findings: Through resources such as Bollywood cinema, and Indian schools for language, music, and dance, second-generation consumers acquire, use and (re) produce situationally prized subcultural capital for distinction from other ethnic consumers and members of the white majority group. Ethnicity is central to second-generation consumers’ identity projects, and their everyday social interactions. Ethnicity is considered in uplifting and empowering terms, and first-generation consumers play a key role in reinforcing this belief.

Research Limitations/Implications: Due to our small sample size, limited by class, religion, and gender, the findings of this chapter might not be generalizable to the wider population. Instead, they can be used to develop new theoretical ways of understanding ethnicity in multicultural settings with long-established migrant populations.

Social Implications: Ethnicity can play a central and positive role in the everyday lives of second-generation consumers. By investigating this further, we can improve our understanding of contemporary, multicultural societies.

Originality/Value of Paper: Prior work in consumer research has focused on understanding first-generation migrant consumers through the lens of acculturation, and foregrounding experiences of stigma and tension. Instead, the authors foreground the positive and uplifting lived experiences of second-generation consumers in relation to their ethnicity. This chapter extends the literature on second-generation ethnic consumer identity work.

The integration of migrants into the society of the host country is one of today’s greatest challenges. Recent increases in the number of newcomers are creating great challenges for European nation-states that are receiving migrants, especially for those countries that traditionally do not define themselves as multicultural societies. In order to help newcomers’ economic and social integration into the host country, their specific characteristics, which result from their linguistic and cultural background, need to be considered. Furthermore, migration is often stressful, and it often acts as a stress factor that contributes to lowered mental health (Bhugra, 2004). Thus, migrants’ inclusion into the mental health-care system of the host country is not only essential to prevent lowered mental health, but might serve as an indicator of their integration into the country’s national institutions as well.

This chapter examines migrants’ subjective notions of integration and their psychological well-being in Germany. The first part of this chapter reviews previous research on migrants’ integration in Germany and presents theoretical frameworks that aim to explain migrants’ integration and psychological adaptation. The second part of the chapter describes an empirical study conducted among psychotherapy patients with a migrant background, and discusses migrants’ subjective notions of integration and psychological well-being in the German mental health-care system.