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The Hispanic population in the United States is rapidly increasing and is expected to be the largest minority group within the next decade. Consequently, a better understanding of this group of consumers is of great importance to marketers. This study investigates the role that acculturation plays on a number of consumer‐related attitudes and behaviors. The results indicate that as acculturation increases, Hispanic consumers are more frequently exposed to English language media, use coupons with greater frequency, and display less loyalty to specific brands.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and begin to validate a scale to assess the shopping environment preferences of Hispanic consumers in the USA.

The sample consists of 160 Hispanic consumers attending a Hispanic festival in the southeast USA. A questionnaire contained items to measure shopping environment preferences and scales to measure materialism, hedonic shopping motivations, and perceived discrimination.

The findings suggest a second-order model where three factors (familiarity, price, and experience) load onto a single second-order construct of shopping environment preferences. The result is a scale consisting of three factors permitting the exploration of the retail environmental preferences of Hispanic consumers in the USA.

The study develops a scale that can be applied by US retailers to gain additional knowledge of their Hispanic consumers, thus enabling strategies to be developed that potentially enhance their engagement in retail environments.

Given the size of this segment and its increasing impact on the retail market, surprisingly, Hispanic consumers in the USA have received relatively little research attention.

The Hispanic market is growing and changing, providing a vital and necessary marketplace for a wide variety of products. Analyses the Hispanic market in the USA, concentrating on advertising. Identifies the Hispanic market through demographic analysis, reviews the manner in which advertisers have portrayed Hispanics, and looks into the tactics which advertisers use in order to market to that inherent market.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study comparing perceptions of discrimination for immigrant and US‐born Hispanics, focusing on Hispanic business professionals.

Data were collected via nationwide survey of over 1,500 Hispanic business professionals and analyzed via analysis of variance.

No significant differences with regard to perceptions of discrimination were found, although both groups reported some level of discrimination. Immigrants had comparatively lower salaries and higher levels of Hispanic identity, yet, no differences in job satisfaction between groups were found. Post hoc analyses found that immigrants were significantly more likely to seek out mentors and US‐born Hispanics were more likely to join affinity groups at work.

Too often, immigrants are misunderstood and mistreated in the workplace. The present study provides an examination of how immigrants might perceive these differences and potential avenues for employers to assess this valuable segment of the workforce are suggested.

The present study creates the groundwork for more future in‐depth studies of the immigrant work experience. To this point, little research has been done on the discrimination perceptions of immigrant populations. The present study compares the perceptions of US‐ and foreign‐born Hispanic professionals.

In recent years companies have realized the importance of targeting their products and advertising efforts toward minority and ethnic groups. Globally, regional cultures have become more pronounced as waves of new immigration have begun to change the landscape for marketers. This paper examines the growing impact of immigrants in Europe and offers an American example of how to penetrate these emerging market segments. Of all the ethnic groups in the USA, Hispanic‐Americans are the fastest growing segment and the largest ethnic minority group. In Europe new immigrant groups are beginning to impact the economic, social and political scene. One area in which more research is needed is the effect of ethnic target marketing on both acculturated and un‐acculturated minorities. Today, it is essential that marketers divide their markets by country of origin and by level of acculturation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the personality characteristics Hispanic shoppers ascribe to US retailers. This study is an exploratory attempt to uncover inconsistencies between Hispanic shoppers' views of US retailers and how those retailers believe they are identified.

Focus group methodology used in the study allowed Hispanic shoppers to attribute personality characteristics to some of the most prevalent retailers in the USA.

Analysis revealed Hispanic shoppers' personification did affect their beliefs about retailers.

There are many implications for retailers wishing to capture more of the Hispanic market segment including the importance of brand identity of the retailer and the buyer's self‐image.

This paper explores Hispanic shoppers' actual beliefs about US retailers, and is unique because of the different type of data collection techniques utilized to capture the data. The personification technique allowed individual, detailed descriptions of US retailers to emerge.

The purpose of this paper is to report research which explores the effects of a hybrid cultural identity on the fashion clothing behavior of Hispanic – particularly, later aged – teenage girls. The study examines differences in need for uniqueness and family referent influence among Hispanic and non‐Hispanic teenagers. In addition, the relevant impact of acculturation processes is examined.

A survey of 76 Hispanic and 52 non‐Hispanic later aged teenagers was administered in March 2006 to a sample of girls at a Catholic (all girls) high school in a large, ethnically diverse US metropolitan area (New York) with a high Hispanic population.

The empirical results show a significantly higher need for uniqueness for Hispanic teenagers. Furthermore, Hispanic teenagers exhibited a lower family influence than non‐Hispanics. Finally, high‐acculturated Hispanics exhibited a relatively lower family referent influence than low‐acculturated Hispanics.

Future cross‐cultural studies should examine the robustness of this finding among various other Hispanic and ethnic (i.e. Chinese‐American) markets in the USA and other nations.

The advanced model and empirical findings hold important managerial implications for marketers that target teenagers. The higher need for uniqueness observed for Hispanic teenage girls could lead to successful advertising appeals to non‐conformity and independence from both family and non‐Hispanic peers.

The higher need for uniqueness exhibited by the Hispanic teenagers is a novel and counter‐intuitive finding that holds important theoretical and practical implications.

Despite the abundance of research on work social support and work-family conflict, the generalizability of these relationships to immigrant and non-immigrant Hispanics is still unknown. Based on role and cultural theories, the purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical examination of these relationships within this growing yet understudied population.

Survey data were collected from a diverse sample of employed immigrant and non-immigrant Hispanics from a broad set of occupational groups within Miami, Florida (USA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test hypotheses. Multi-group analyses were conducted to test for differences in model fit and parameter estimates between the immigrant and non-immigrant subgroups.

The hypothesized model fit the data well, with a significant positive relationship between perceived organizational social support and perceived supervisor social support, a significant negative relationship between perceived organizational social support and work-to-family conflict, and a significant negative relationship between perceived supervisor social support and family-to-work conflict. Multi-group SEM, which offered acceptable model fit, suggests that perceived organizational social support is associated with reduced work-family conflict for immigrant but not for non-immigrant Hispanics, and perceived supervisor social support is associated with reduced work-family conflict for non-immigrant but not for immigrant Hispanics.

Cross-sectional data do not allow for strong causal interpretations.

Perceived work social support is an important indicator of work-family conflict for both immigrant and non-immigrant Hispanics, although specific relationships can differ based on immigration status.

Few studies have investigated differences in work-family conflict between non-immigrant and immigrant Hispanics.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that having a bank account is an important precursor to participating in the US financial mainstream. However, about 24 percent of Hispanic households in the USA are unbanked. This study seeks to examine whether the use of banks among Hispanic consumers can be explained by acculturation and microcultural factors. Design/methodology/approach – The model proposes that having a checking or savings account is a function of acculturation, microculture, and demographics. Acculturation is measured in terms of length of time in the USA; plans to remain in the USA temporarily versus permanently; Spanish language use; and citizenship status. Microculture is measured by country of origin. Data used for this analysis were collected in a survey sponsored by a start‐up financial institution interested in targeting the Hispanic market. These data were collected in 2004 during telephone interviews with 1,000 Hispanic renters in major markets across the USA. Findings – More acculturated Hispanic consumers are more likely to have a bank account, regardless of income, and level of education. In addition, the propensity to have a bank account varies by country of origin. Practical implications – Marketers and policymakers should target less acculturated immigrants who view themselves as temporary US residents, and those who use Spanish primarily for communicating outside the home. Marketers should emphasize the safety and soundness of the US banking system and should accommodate needs for international funds transfers. Originality/value – The findings can help financial service providers and public policy makers to target a growing market segment.

The fastest-growing and the largest minority group in the USA, Hispanics are known to have low health literacy because of their limited English proficiency (LEP) and other socio-economic and cultural factors. This paper aims to examine the health information-seeking behaviors of Hispanics in the e-health environment and their use of public libraries as a health information source/service.

An interviewer-administered survey was conducted using a semi-structured instrument. The questionnaires inquired about Hispanics’ health information needs, source use and source preference; use of the library for health information needs; and their perceptions and satisfaction about the library’s consumer health information services. A total of 26 Hispanics were recruited from a Hispanic community organization, a public library and an ethnic grocery store in North Carolina.

The majority of the participants are foreign born (92.3 per cent) and non-English speakers (84.6 per cent). The internet was the most frequently used source, followed by friends/family, doctors and TV. Eighty-one per cent of the participants were internet users, and most of them (71 per cent) used the internet at home. Only 23 per cent visited a public library to search the internet for health information. Some barriers to using a public library mentioned by the participants include lack of time to visit a library, lack of skills in using the library materials, transportation, LEP, lack of eligibility for a library card, etc.

The findings will be useful for libraries and state/federal health services to evaluate and develop library services suitable for the Hispanics’ consumer health information needs.

This study is one of a few studies that use an empirical study of a low health literacy ethnic population to examine the possible roles of public libraries in enhancing health literacy.