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Multicultural markets and acculturation: implications for service firms
Poulis, Konstantinos; Yamin, Mo; Poulis, Efthimios
Journal of Services Marketing. 2013;27(7):515-525.
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Abstract
Purpose - The purpose is to construct an analytical framework that encapsulates implications for the marketing offering of service firms as a result of observed intra-national ethnic diversity in these firms’ markets of operation. Design/methodology/approach - This is a conceptual approach which promotes the idea that acculturation matters for service firms operating in multicultural markets and adopts relevant propositions related to service firms’ strategy in such markets.Findings - Integrating fragmented insights from consumer behaviour and multicultural marketing, the study suggests that the various interactions and contacts between ethnic groups in a multicultural country can generate acculturation outcomes that lend themselves to novel avenues for empirical research. These avenues move beyond a research focus on the presence of ethnic groups as stand-alone entities of intra-ethnic uniformity.Practical implications - Firms with a broader market horizon in a multicultural market can employ acculturation in their marketing strategy since an exclusive focus on ethnicity as a basis of segmenting the market reveals shortcomings. Otherwise, a myopic approach that ignores cross-ethnic interactions may lead to bypassing opportunities for more considerate market responses by a service firm.Originality/value - To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the only acculturation study in a services context that offers an analytical framework and propositions that can be used as a guide for multicultural, services marketing researchers and practitioners that see the market in a holistic fashion.
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- Publisher (Emerald) URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/JSM-02-2012-0041