Shaping Outdoor Lifestyle: The Acculturation Experience of Ethnic Chinese Immigrant Consumers in New Zealand

• Main Authors: Chih-kwang Yang, 楊琦光
• Other Authors: Tsuen-Ho Hsu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/m57sh6

博士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 管理學院博士班 === 102 === This study explored how did the ethnic Chinese immigrant consumers shape their outdoor lifestyle through experiencing consumer acculturation. For immigrant consumers, along with the geographic movement, comes the problem of adapting to the consumer environment in a new country. Through the dynamic adaptation process, the values and consumer behavior of immigrant consumers evolve progressively and the skills and knowledge relevant to engagement in the consumption in a new culture are acquired. Consumer researchers have termed this adaptation process “consumer acculturation”. As the increasing importance of immigrant consumers in the market of immigrant society, to understand the acculturation experience is a key concern both for marketers and consumer researchers. Being sojourning in New Zealand, the researcher has the opportunity and privilege of personal contact with New Zealand culture and firsthand observation with immigrant consumers. The observed phenomenon that the change of outdoor lifestyle of the ethnic Chinese immigrant consumers, coming from countries where outdoor lifestyle is not typical, can be explained as the result of consumer acculturation. Consumer acculturation theory can facilitate the change of behavior of immigrant consumers. However, there is lack of literature addressing influence paths of Consumer Acculturation to outdoor lifestyle behavior. Hence, the motivations of the current are driven by research gap and observation. The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence paths of consumer acculturation through exploring the shaping process of ethnic Chinese immigrant consumers’ outdoor lifestyle. Complementary Methodologies were employed; qualitative method facilitated the exploring and depicting the shaping process of outdoor lifestyle; whereas, quantitative method facilitated the empirical study. Enriched qualitative data facilitated the delineation of shaping process of ethnic Chinese Consumer’s outdoor lifestyle. The process profiled the dynamic process and its interactive relation with consumer acculturation. Ten hypotheses (five influence paths) were proposed and an empirical model was constructed. 402 samples were collected from the four biggest cities of New Zealand covering both North Island and South Island. The ten hypotheses were all supported by the empirical data. Current study concluded five influence paths, which means the acculturation helps to bring about the outdoor lifestyle behavior by increasing activity consumption values of hedonic benefit, social benefit, and self-efficacy benefit, and increasing immigrant consumer’s perceived behavior control and his adventurousness. The findings of the current study contribute to fulfilling the theoretical gap of consumer acculturation in explaining the influence paths of outdoor lifestyle behaviors, and provide empirical verification of consumption value theory in the context of consumer acculturation. The enriched content of the shaping process and perceived consumption value of outdoor activity of ethnic Chinese immigrant consumers provide insightful understanding for marketing practitioners