Five-Stage Acculturation Process of Hispanic Consumers: Theory and Findings

Abstract

This study seeks to explain the process of how consumers acculturate by validating a typology of five acculturation states, which includes four final states (assimilation, integration, separation and marginalization) and one transitional (resilience). Using U.S. Hispanic consumers as a cardinal example, and six coordinated samples of consumers, this study introduces continuous measures of cultural awareness and ethnic loyalty to learn how those two antithetical forces shape the acculturation process of immigrant consumers. Employing the CETSCALE, cultural awareness is measured by the degree of adoption of the host culture as represented by the adoption of American products, and ethnic loyalty is measured by the degree of retention of the culture of origin as represented by the retention of products from the country of origin. The results show that consumers who have more cultural awareness than ethnic identity are assimilated, whereas those who have more ethnic loyalty than cultural awareness are fundamentally separated or ethnic consumers. Consumers that have a high degree in both measures are integrated consumers. Conversely, consumers that have low levels of both traits are marginalized. A substantial number of consumers, however, are in a transitory path towards one of the four final states. The revision taken herein overcomes limitations of existing theories and models by emphasizing the process of acculturation, measuring two key forces shaping such process, and finding a transitional state of resilient consumers that previous studies had overlooked, thereby showing that the process of consumer acculturation can best be reflected in a typology of five states.