Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Acculturation and consumer behaviour: a study of British Indians Thesis How to cite: Vijaygopal, Rohini (2010). Acculturation and consumer behaviour: a study of British Indians. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2010 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Redacted Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000cc89 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk The Open University Acculturation and Consumer Behaviour: A Study of British Indians By Rohini Vijaygopal Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Masters in Marketing Management Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of The Open University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Marketing and Strategy Research Unit, The Open University Business School The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA September 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES IX LIST OF FIGURES XII LIST OF CHARTS XIV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XV ABSTRACT XVI CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1.1 Research rationale 1 1.2 The concept of acculturation 6 1.3 Acculturation and consumer behaviour 8 1.4 The relevance of demographics in acculturation 10 1.5 Scope of the research 10 1.6 Research objectives and implementation 14 1.7 Contributions of the research 19 1.8 Structure of the thesis 21 1.9 Summary 23 CHAPTER 2: Acculturation and Consumer Behaviour 2.1 Introduction 24 2.2 Acculturation 25 2.2.1 Models of acculturation 26 2.2.2 Studies on acculturation 31 II 2.2.3 Frameworks of acculturation 34 2.2.4 Consumer acculturation 42 2.3 Consumer behaviour in the context of acculturation 56 2.3.1 External influences: Culture and reference groups 59 2.3.2 Brand preference 63 2.3.2.1 Brands, brand equity and brand image 63 2.3.2.2 Self-image and brand preference 65 2.3.2.3 Consumer behaviour and brand preference 65 2.4 Demographic Factors 66 2.4.1 Influence of demographic factors on consumer behaviour 67 2.4.2 Relationship of demographic factors with acculturation 68 2.5 Summary 79 CHAPTER 3: Research Framework and Hypotheses 3.1 Introduction 80 3.2 History of acculturation studies and laying the research foundations 81 3.3 Biculturalism and situational ethnicity 85 3.4 The role of ethnicity in the field of marketing in the UK 88 3.4.1 British Indians 89 3.4.2 Defining 'British Indians' 91 3.4.3 British Indians and the concept of individualism-collectivism 91 3.5 Proposed model for the research 94 3.5.1 Acculturation categories 95 3.5.2 Adapting Berry's framework for use in this research 97 3.5.2.1 Attitudinal dimension of acculturation 98 3.5.2.2 Behavioural dimension of acculturation 99 III 3.5.2.3 Berry's categories in tenns of dimensions of acculturation 99 3.5.2.4 The 'marginalisation' category of Berry's (1980) framework 100 3.5.3 Scale for measuring acculturation categories 104 3.5.4 Acculturation categories and brand preference 109 3.5.5 Demographic factors and acculturation 113 3.5.6 Full model of the research framework with hypotheses 117 3.6 Summary 121 CHAPTER 4: Research Methodology 4.1 Introduction 123 4.2 Philosophy of research design 125 4.2.1 The two paradigms in social science 127 4.2.2 Positivism 128 4.2.3 Combining qualitative and quantitative methods 130 4.3 Research Design 131 4.4 Preliminary questionnaire development 134 4.4.1 Section 1: Measuring the acculturation category of respondents 134 4.4.2 Section 2: Respondents' brand preference 137 4.4.3 Section 3: Demographics of the respondents 139 4.5 Focus groups and dyads 139 4.5.1 Designing the focus group and dyad compositions 141 4.5.2 Recruitment for the focus groups 142 4.5.3 Focus group discussion guide 142 4.5.4 Moderation of the focus groups 144 4.6 Questionnaire development based on focus group analysis 145 4.6.1 Developing Section 1 of the questionnaire-CLSI 146 IV 4.6.2 Developing Section 2 of the questionnaire-Brand preference 147 4.6.3 Developing Section 3 of the questionnaire-Demographics 152 4.6.4 Other discussions in the focus groups 152 4.7 Questionnaire pretesting 155 4.8 Survey 156 4.8.1 Survey method: Paper versus online format 156 4.8.2 Identifying British Indians for the research 157 4.8.3 Sampling procedure 159 4.8.4 Data collection 162 4.8.4.1 Pilot surveys 163 4.8.4.2 Minimum required sample size 165 4.8.4.3 Main survey 168 4.9 Ethics approval 169 4.10 Reliability and validity 170 4.1 0 .1 Reliability 171 4.1 0.2 Validity 172 4.11 Research bias 174 4.11.1 Sample design errors 175 4.11.2 Measurement design errors 176 4.11.3 Hospitality error 178 4.12 Analytical methodology 179 4.12.1 Hypotheses 180 4.12.2 Parametric or non-parametric tests 182 4.12.3 Statistical tests used in this research 183 4.12.3.1 Cluster analysis 183 v 4.12.3.2 One-way ANOVA 186 4.12.3.3 Correlation and chi-square tests 188 4.12.3.4 Two-way ANOVA 189 4.12.3.5 Significance level 190 4.12.3.6 Decision rule for hypothesis testing 191 4.12.3.7 SPSS 191 4.13 Summary 192 CHAPTER 5: Data Analysis 5.1 Introduction 194 5.2 Preliminary examination of the data 196 5.2.1 Preparing the data for the main analysis 197 5.2.1.1 Cleaning the data 197 5.2.1.2 Missing data 198 5.2.1.3 Outliers 201 5.2.1.4 Normality 202 5.2.2 Measuring the acculturation categories 202 5.3 Description of the sample 203 5.4 Cluster Analysis 208 5.5 Statistical tests to compare groups 216 5.5.1 One-Way ANOVA 217 5.5.2 Kruskal-Wallis test 224 5.6 CHAID Analysis 227 5.7 Acculturation categories and brand preference 234 5.7.1 Acculturation categories and brand preference- detailed analyses 234 \,1 5.7.2 Analysis of decision-maker questions 142 5.8 Tests for the relationship between demographics and acculturation categories 244 5.9 Tests for demographics as moderators of the relationship between acculturation categories and brand preference 254 5.10 Profiles of the three acculturation categories 257 5.11 Summary 260 CHAPTER 6: Discussion 6.1 Introduction 264 6.2 Categories of acculturation in the British Indian population 265 6.3 Acculturation categories and brand preference 270 6.4 Acculturation and brand preference-by various products and services 281 6.5 Relationship between demographic factors and acculturation 285 6.6 Profiles of acculturation categories 294 6.6.1 Separated British Indians 294 6.6.2 Integrated British Indians 295 6.6.3 Assimilated British Indians 296 6.7 Summary 296 CHAPTER 7: Conclusions 7.1 Introduction 300 7.2 Summary of research findings 301 7.3 Research contributions 304 7.3.1 Academic contributions 305 VII 7.3.2 Contributions to practice 310 7.4 Research limitations 315 7.5 Future research 319 7.6 Summary 323 REFERENCES 324 APPENDIX I 369 APPENDIX II 383 APPENDIX III 398 APPENDIX IV 404 VIII LIST OF TABLES Page 2.1 Studies on acculturation 31 2.2 Berry's acculturation categories 35 2.3 Studies of consumer acculturation 46 3.1 Individualism and collectivism: A comparison 92 3.2 Berry's categories in terms of dimensions of acculturation 100 3.3 Berry's acculturation categories and Mendoza's acculturation patterns 107 3.4 Studies on demographic variables and acculturation 114 3.5 Summary of hypotheses to be tested later in this research 120 4.1 Overview of research methodology 124 4.2 Ontologies and epistemologies in social science 126 4.3 Elements of methodology for social science epistemologies 127 4.4 The CLSI questions 136 4.5 The response options in the CLSI questionnaire 136 4.6 Summary of focus groups and dyads composition 141 4.7 Focus group discussion guide 143 4.8 Summary of brands presented and participants' responses 147 4.9 Final list of brands 150 4.10 Brand classification based on attitude towards the brands 152 4.11 Structure of the questionnaire 153 4.12 Overview of Phase II of research: Large-scale survey 154 4.13 The first pilot survey and the responses 163 4.14 The second pilot survey and the responses 164 4.15 Responses to the main survey and total responses 168 IX 4.16 Summary of response rates across the pilot and main surveys 168 4.17 Respondents' comment analysis 179 4.18 Hypothesis and other parts of a research study 180 4.19 Null hypotheses 181 4.20 Parametric and non-parametric tests 183 4.21 Type I and Type II errors 190 5.1 Distribution of respondents across acculturation categories 203 5.2 Demographic information 204 5.3 'Are you the person who typically is the decision maker for ... ?' 207 5.4 Hierarchical cluster solution 209 5.5 Cluster size from K-Means clustering method 210 5.6 Overall mean values for the clusters 212 5.7 Results of the One-Way AN OVA test 214 5.8 Descriptives for the One-Way ANOVA results 217 5.9 Effect size and percentage overlap between acculturation categories 218 5.10 One-Way ANOVA test results 220 5.11 Post Hoc Tukey HSD test results for multiple comparisons 222 5.12 Percentage brand preference across acculturation categories 222 5.13 Kruskal-Wallis test 224 5 .14 Mann-Whitney U test: Separation and Assimilation categories 225 5.15 Summary of the results from the Mann-Whitney U test 226 5.16 Classification of brands based on attitudes towards brands 235 5.17 Classification of brands based on types of products and services 235 5.18 Brand preference and acculturation categories-in depth analysis 237 x 5.19 Decision maker versus non-decision maker: Results of the Independent Samples