Ethnicity and acculturation

Ethnic identity: Also named as self-identification, ethnic identity refers to the affiliation with an ethnic group by the consumer himself. Identity theory is a theory that argues the individual’s identification of what social group he belongs to (Qionglei Yua, 2018). Basing on his attitudes and behaviours, the individual judges himself as belonging to a particular ethnic group. Contrary to ethnic origin, this concept is mutable over time since the individual’s preferences may change depending on different circumstances.

Ethnic intensity: It is the recent dimension of ethnicity. In addition to ethnic origin and ethnic identity, researchers have considered necessary to measure the degree and the intensity of this ethnic identity (Hirschman, 1981). A strong ethnic identity appears to make it harder for individuals to adapt to the new culture (Qionglei Yua, 2018).

When the consumer identifies himself to different ethnic groups this dimension serves to spot the group that influences the most the consumer’s behaviour. In practice, the majority of the studies use ethnic identity when studying the acculturation process because it remains pointless and futile to rely only on ethnic origin.

The impact of ethnicity on the acculturation process: The concept of ethnicity has been studied in various marketing researches based on consumer’s acculturation (Kim et al, 1990). Consumers’ attitudes and behaviours are significantly influenced by cultural differences due to both ethnicity and acculturation (Laroche et al, 1997).  The relationship between ethnicity and acculturation presents a real debate for researchers. Some of them consider these two concepts as identical (Webster, 1994) while Penaloza (1994) consider them to be negatively correlated. The more the person is attached to its ethnic identity, the more its acculturation is difficult.

Pires (2005) identifies ethnic identity as an “endogenous reciprocal variable” that influences the degree of the adoption of values of other ethnic groups, and simultaneously it reflects this degree. Which means that the degree of acculturation is at the same time influenced by and has an impact on ethnic identity.

The acculturation process is more likely to be fast and easy when acculturating parts share intensive common values (Wong-Rieger & Quintana, 1987). The greater the intensity of these shared values, the faster is the acculturation process. From this divergence in the definition of the nature of the relation between acculturation and ethnicity, it appears that these two concepts are both complex. Thereby, it appears necessary to examine the link between these two concepts through an exploratory study.

The impact of